Bottled Genius
by Torenza
Summary: [Complete] AU. IYKag. Kagome is down on her luck, so when she rubs the bottle of the Genie Inuyasha, she thinks her life has changed for the better.
1. Unearthing a Curse

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha, the same way I don't own say… the moon. Be cool if I did though. I don't even own this plot, I think Aladdin found the Genie thing first… oh well. 

AN: A new story? Yes, I promised I would start some new ones, so here it is. Expect more from me soon though ^_^

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 1

Unearthing a Curse

"Kagome!" Souta thwapped her over the head with his school bag. "Wake up, we're here."

Kagome's brow drew together as she sucked in a deep breath of air and stretched in the passenger seat of the car. She felt the cold draught of air creep over her from where Souta had already scrambled out and left the door ajar in the back. She blinked slowly awake and fixed her gaze on the dark shadowy shape outlined in the moonlight before her.

"So he lives here, huh…?" Kagome managed intelligently to her mother beside her.

It was something short of a mansion… old fashioned and a little worn around the edges. But the place was larger than any house she had seen before…

Mrs Higurashi glanced across and must have seen Kagome's pensive expression because she reached over and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, it's only until we get all this debt and money problems sorted out, then we can move back into the city again."

"I know." Kagome yawned slightly as she unfastened her belt and stepped out of the car.

Somehow it didn't seem entirely fair. They had money problems… so they moved out of their Shrine to moved into something akin to a palace. Not quite what you'd expect, but there was of course, a few catches to this arrangement. The first being they had to live with Grandpa now, but that wasn't so bad. He was quite cool after all (using that term in the vaguest way possible).

The other catch was of course that they had to move out of the town, out of their district and into the country. No malls, no people, no fast food joints and no cinemas for miles.

But out of all the luxuries and things that she'd have to give up, she'd miss her friends most… they all lived in central Tokyo… while Kagome was now stuck in rural Izu with a gas-bag for a Grandfather.

"Try not to look so down." Her mother told her lightly as they carried their bags to the archway which was supposed to be a porch. "You'll hurt his feelings."

"Do you think they have frogs and minnows in that river…?" Souta wondered idly, looking off through the nearby trees to where the sound of rushing water echoed. "Maybe we can go fishing."

"Maybe not." Kagome said somewhat dryly.

Mrs Higurashi moved to knock on the door when it opened suddenly and they found their beaming Grandpa in the doorway. Kagome's mother smiled at once. "Dad! How've you been?"

"All the better for seeing you three again." He cheerfully accepted her embrace and turned to his grandchildren. "Souta – you've grown at least a metre since I last saw you!"

Souta grinned proudly.

Kagome waited for her turn with grim acceptance. Her Grandpa turned to her and at once did the Grandpa thing… pinched her cheeks and patted her shoulder. "And little Kagome, growing prettier everyday."

Souta snorted in disbelief while Kagome just carried on smiling, though she felt her cheeks had had enough strain already that day.

"Come in, come in, out of this cold." Their grandpa beckoned them in and shut the door after them. "Set your bags down in the hall, we can collect the rest of the stuff from the car later. I suppose you want the tour now don't you. I'll show you where you'll all be sleeping."

What, no comment or questions about their father? Well… maybe her mother had already told Grandpa the full story over the phone… or maybe that would all come later. Meanwhile she dragged her feet as she followed the others through the hallway and up a staircase that creaked as they ascended it.

"Are you sure this is safe to walk up?" Kagome found herself asking impulsively.

"Of course." Her Grandpa waved off her concern. "It's been standing for two and a half centuries. It's not failed us yet."

That wasn't as comforting as he believed.

"Two and a half centuries this house has been standing in all." Grandpa started off. "Was built by the family Yoshimoto – their two sons slaved away with their four bare hands for years to build this place."

Oops, she'd set him off on one of his history lectures. She sighed and trailed after obediently, especially after that sharp glance her mother sent her when she sighed a little too loudly. 

But actually it was quite impressive… considering the place had been built by only two people, the place was excessively large. There were probably rooms that Grandpa had never seen in that house… probably would never see. If she put her brains and brawn together with Souta… the best form of shelter they could come up with was usually two planks of wood propped together with maybe a blanket if they wanted to push the boat out…

"Do you think if we dig around in the yard we'll find some dead bodies?" Souta whispered quietly to Kagome as Grandpa continued to ramble, whilst their mother did her best in pretending to listen.

"Dead bodies of who?" Kagome frowned at him. "We've been here all of five minutes and your already planning to renovate the garden."

"Didn't you hear about the legend of this place?" Souta blinked at her.

"What legend?"

"Legend?" Grandpa's ears perked up at the word. "I assure you that the legend is just a myth… a nice story that locals liked to pass around the pubs when there's nothing to talk about. Now, did you see the window over here? Very interesting the way…" and off into the rambles he went again.

Souta tugged on Kagome's sleeve. "See how quickly he changed the subject? There's obviously some serious paranormal activity around here."

"Paranormal activity going on in your brain for once more like." Kagome tugged her arm away from him. "Don't be so childish."

"You're just grumpy we left the city and the school behind."

"Oh, should I be smiling instead?" she asked sarcastically. 

"You two." Their mother cut them both off before an argument could develop. She shook her head, indicating for them to be quiet. They both obliged, somewhat grudgingly and trailed after the adults to be shown where the bedrooms were.

^_^

Grandpa and his wife, also know as Granny, had lived in that house for at least thirty years now. A few years ago, Granny had died and that left Grandpa alone in the house. Kagome had to respect that he probably got quite lonely sometimes… not surprising if he lived in a house the size of a department store with nearly sixty acres of land around it to call his own. From what she'd seen, he only seemed to use to or three rooms in the entire house. The bedroom, the bathroom, the kitchen and the living room. All the other rooms were cold and dank and looked like no one had stepped into them for many, many years.

This was proven by the thick layer of sticky plaster dust that covered the floors of such rooms, undisturbed for years.

In his time, Grandpa had been quite the business man. He'd left the Shrine to his daughter and her family and moved on to greater things involving international trade. He'd become wealthy enough to buy this place with his wife, and had then retired to live out the rest of his days.

The house had been empty for quite some time before her Grandparents decided to purchase it and the surrounding land. She couldn't understand why… the place had a nice view, clean air and bags of space – something people would kill for these days.

"They say that a young woman owned the house fifty years ago." Souta told her as they unpacked their suitcases onto their beds. Unfortunately they both had to share a room until one of the other bedrooms could be cleaned up. "She died a mysterious death… they just found her lying cold stone dead in the attic, with no explanation for her death."

"Maybe her heart just stopped." Kagome said with a roll of her eyes, attempting to squash the story that seemed to be sprinting through his imagination. "It happens."

"She was eighteen, it couldn't have been a heart attack. And there was no other cause of death available…" he acquired a mysterious voice suddenly. "Except on her face she wore a happy smile, she must have been smiling when she died."

"Laughed her head off?" Kagome suggested.

Souta glared at her. "But don't it seem strange that after she died, the house was unoccupied for like, twenty years, even while other properties that were more expensive than this were being fought over all over the place?"

"Not really." Kagome put her socks away in the draw beside her underwear. "So a girl died? Big deal. A lot of people die in the world."

"They say she moved into the house with her father who also died with strange circumstances shortly before she did." Souta told her. "This place is probably haunted. At least two peopled have died here so far."

"And a third one shortly if you don't quit being so gullible." Kagome said breezily.

Souta shrugged and got on with unpacking until he suddenly looked up at her and grinned. "Hey – I bet Grandpa has never been into the attic has he."

"Not with his hips, probably not." Kagome glanced across at him. "Why?"

"Which means…" he turned his eyes upwards. "No ones been up there for fifty years…"

Kagome followed his gaze slowly to a square hole in the ceiling that was boarded up… the way to the attic. "You're probably right."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" he grinned at her and she returned it.

When it came to adventure and exploration into the unknown, the two siblings were very like-minded.

^_^

"What do you see?" Souta called up to her.

Kagome hefted the board aside and climbed up the last few steps of the ladder into the loft space. She coughed as dust invaded her lungs, disturbed from the floor by her clumsy footing. Cobwebs tangled in her hair, but she'd never been incredibly squeamish and just brushed them off hastily, praying no spiders had been sitting on them.

"Well?" Souta called again.

"Gimme a minute." She switched on the old torch they'd swiped from the kitchen cupboard and had to slap it a few times to get it bright enough. "Um… I see… dead pigeon… dead pigeon… dead pigeon… and oh! Dead rat."

"I'm coming up as well." She heard him say before hearing the ladder begin creaking again. The held the top so it wouldn't accidentally fall suddenly with no one holding it beneath. She pulled him up into the attic as well and smiled in amusement as his reaction to the dust and cobwebs were a little more irrational than hers had been.

"Isn't there a light around here?" he asked, still looking himself over for spiders and webs.

"If there is, I doubt it works." She told him and shone her light around the loft space and squinted through the dust clouds that had risen like smoke, or fine mist. Amongst the dead pigeons and various old insulation material that lay around, forgotten, were several wooden crates and boxes. "What do you think's in them?"

"Bodies?"

"Not big enough."

"Chopped up bodies?"

Kagome ignored him and ducked under a timbre buttress to kneel beside the nearest set of boxes. She set her torch on one and began opening another. Souta stood behind her, watching over her shoulder as she pushed the lid aside and looked in.

"That's…" She started.

"Mould." Souta finished with a sigh. "Who'd pack mould up in a box?"

"They wouldn't." Kagome shook her head and looked upwards. "There must have been a leak in the roof… the water must have gotten into the boxes."

"Not all of them, right?" Souta watched her as she stood again.

"Well, maybe not the boxes stacked on top of the ones on the floor." She picked up the torch and handed it to him. "Hold this for me." She heaved down one of the topmost boxes and set it on top of the one she'd previously opened. She flapped her hands for a moment, trying to chase away the dust before digging her fingers under the rim of the box and opening it with a tug.

"Cool. No mould." Souta piped up beside her.

"No… just books… old smelly books…" Kagome lifted one out and flipped through it. The pages fell out in an instant and scattered over her lap and the floor. "Oops."

"No one's gonna miss it." Souta shrugged and tugged on her blouse. "Try the ones over here – they're labelled."

But whoever had labelled them had very illegible hand-writing. That or time had worn the characters down to just wiggles. Kagome pulled down the top box again from the stack and pried it open. The contents were slightly more interesting this time.

"What the hell is this stuff?" Souta pulled out one item from the box.

"A comb." Kagome sighed impatiently. "Haven't you ever brushed your hair with a – wait, don't answer that. What else have we got here…?"

A few moth eaten dresses, a hand held mirror, some perfume bottles and a shiny black leather case. Kagome picked it out carefully whilst Souta busied himself with the dresses. She opened the case slowly and frowned at the contents. Not another book…

Wait… no it wasn't another book. It was a journal.

Kagome picked it out with more care than she had with the previous book and opened the hardback cover to the first page.

"Kikyo…" Kagome frowned thoughtfully. "Was this the young woman?"

"Young woman with a seventy year old's taste in clothes." Souta wrinkled his nose as he put the clothes back and started sniffing around the perfume bottles. "How much do you suppose this stuff is worth? I mean, if we sold it to a museum we'd be back in the money right? Then maybe we could move back into our Shrine."

"I don't think so. It's only fifty years old… it's not really that ancient." Kagome flipped though the first few pages. "You want to sell something ancient, sell Grandpa, he's older than all this stuff put together."

"Do you think we'll find a murder weapon?" Souta asked, looking around the attic. "She died up here right?"

"If the police didn't find one fifty years ago, you think you'll find one today?" Kagome shot him an amused look.

"Maybe." He turned the other way and promptly forgot to duck the low hung timbre rafter. He nearly knocked himself out. "OW! Man…" he grumbled and rubbed his bumped head. "Maybe she died like that."

Kagome giggled at his expense.

"Glad you find my pain amusing, Kagome." He snapped.

"Not at all amusing. Hilarious more like." Kagome smiled mildly. Then she noticed the perfume bottles that Souta had been looking at. "These look cute… coloured glass… maybe they're worth something?"

"I fell like we're pillaging a corpse." Souta muttered, still rubbing his head.

"Nonsense. Grandpa bought all this stuff when he bought the house. He owns everything in this loft so we're no pillaging any dead girls today." Kagome told him as she carefully shut the journal and put it back in its black case. She didn't want to damage it.

"Where do you think they found the body…?" Souta went on wondering as he moved around the loft carefully, staring at the floor intently for some old blood stain. 

Somewhere deep into the house below them they heard their mother's voice. "Souta?! Kagome?! Dinner!"

"Coming!" they both chorused, hoping their mother heard them from all the way up there.

"I smell spaghetti hoops!" Souta practically slid down the ladder in his hurry to get to the kitchen before Grandpa gobbled them all. They were both notorious spaghetti in tomato sauce fans. Kagome started to follow, before hesitating and looking back at the opened box. That journal looked interesting – maybe she should take it with her?

She scooped up the black case and the perfume bottles while she was at it. She cradled them in her blouse like a pocket as she carefully descended down the ladder. 

^_^

She sat up late that night reading the faded entries in the old journal. She kept the light on beside her bed while Souta slept soundly in the bed opposite hers.

Kikyo was… she discovered… a very subdued kind of girl. She had been seventeen when she'd written these entries, though she seemed much older. Kagome knew seventeen year olds… they were probably more brainless than Souta in the extreme cases. And even while Kagome liked to think of herself as a mature sort of girl, she knew she'd never be mature as the girl she was reading about.

The entries were straight forward, efficient. One paragraph long usually, recounting interesting events of certain days with a little date on top to prove it. Kagome read the slightly longer entry she'd made on her eighteenth birthday. Kagome could already picture the girl from the tone of her writing… basically a girl who never cracked a smile, talked in a monotone voice and was very, very, very boring.

Kagome decided to skip a few pages on ahead until one entry caught her eye. It was two pages long. It was about her moving into the house with her father… and by the sound of it, she resented the thought of moving into such an old house, just as much as she seemed to resent her father.

"Looks like we have something in common…" Kagome whispered to herself.

After that there was somewhat of a large gap in dates. Three months in fact. And her next entry puzzled Kagome somewhat.

__

I wished for a humble palace. I got what I asked. How foolish I am…

Kagome flicked to the next page.

__

I wished to sing with the voice of an angel. I got what I asked. I can no longer sing.

Kagome reread the entry, not sure she was seeing the words correctly. They didn't make any sense… what was this girl on about?

__

I wished to be able to play the piano. I got what I asked. I can play, but I cannot read music, and I cannot learn pieces by heart. I cannot invent music either… I cannot play the piano.

"Ok…" Kagome said slowly, wondering what on earth was happening in this girl's mind at this point in time.

__

I wished my father would just leave me alone for good. They found his body in the river. My father is dead.

Now that downright chilled Kagome. She just stared at the words as a cold feeling swept over her, making her hair stand on end as if someone had scratched nails down a blackboard.

__

I wished to find love. I found it. But I cannot keep it.

The next entry was the last, dated 14th January 1954.

__

I wished I would die a happy woman in the end. I fear for my life.

Kagome slapped the journal shut and stared at it uneasily. That was just creepy… die a happy woman? The smiling dead woman in the attic was found in January 1954.

Maybe she was just dreaming… a tad thirsty though, so maybe not. She set down the journal again and swung her legs out of bed. Her gaze fell on the three bottles that sat on her bedside table. Blue tinted glass with purple glaze that shone in the light the wail oil shone colourfully in water sometimes. The stopper on each was just as blue as each bottle, but two were cracked and had obviously been glued back together, while the third remained in tact. Kagome had decided that the two broken stoppers probably set the value of the bottles down a little… but the third one?

She picked it up and turned it upside down. She pulled the stopper out and sniffed the inside. It smelled like sandalwood. Not very strong… but she put the stopper back anyway and set it back on the table. She'd speak to her Grandpa tomorrow and find out if they really were worth something, or just cheap tacky stuff that would be sold in car-boot sales.

That thirst was beginning to nag her and she slithered out of bed quietly, so as not to disturb Souta as she padded her way across the cold floor to the door. She must have wandered around aimlessly for at least five minutes before she eventually found the kitchen. It was the only modern part of the house, complete with upgraded cooker and microwave. Obviously Grandpa didn't plan to live in the stone-age where food was concerned.

Kagome took one of the clean glasses from the cupboard and filled it with water from the tap. Annoyingly, the tap refused to work properly and spluttered little dribbles of water at her… and just when she'd put her hand to it to see what the problem was, it shot out such a strong blast of water that she could have sworn it pierced right through her palm. "Son of a…"

"Air bubbles."

She spun so fast the glass flew from her grip and shattered against the back of one of the kitchen chairs. The boy sitting on the edge of the table blinked in mild surprise as the glass shards spread across the floor. "I guess the plumbing hasn't changed much has it… though that's new." He skewed a glance at the microwave.

Kagome's mouth worked furiously. A million questions bursting inside her at once. Who the hell was he? How the hell did he get in the house without tripping the security alarm? Why did he have white hair? Why was he telling her about plumbing? And most of all – why the hell was he in the kitchen with her?!

"I-I'll scream!" she threatened with a trembling voice. "And my family will call the police."

He shrugged with a roll of his eyes. "I'm sure they will. You were the one who pulled the stopper right?"

"What?" Kagome stared at him.

"Right." He sighed and slid off the table onto his feet. "A newbie. I'll say this only once, so you have to listen."

"You listen to me – get out of this house!" Kagome demanded, groping around her for some kind of defensive weapon. Her hand landed on the rolling pin… well, good enough. "I'm warning you!"

"And I'm warning you." He folded his arms and scowled at her. "I'm only gonna say this once so you have to listen."

Kagome furiously tried to berate him again, but he cut her off.

"I'm a tenth generation so you get ten wishes. The rules are simple. No wishing for any more wishes than the ten you are given. You cannot reverse a wish, the only way to do that is to make another wish reversing the previous one. You cannot have me bring the dead back to life. You cannot have me conjure, whilst I can bend the rules of physics, I can't break them just yet. No wishing for me to be your sex slave, otherwise I am obliged to drop you in the middle of the ocean and find myself a new master. And last, but not least, you cannot expel me from what I do by using your last wish to set me free, though why on earth you'd want to do that is beyond me. Got that?"

Kagome stared at him. He must have been crazy…

"And a personal request. Try not to smash my bottle, it's happened eleven times already and I would appreciate if you people took some care once in a while." He gave a humourless smile. "Ten wishes. I'm not in the mood tonight, so call me again when you think of something you'd like."

"Call you…?" Kagome echoed in confusion. She wanted to know more, what he was talking about, who he was. Why was his hair so perfectly white and his eyes so bright and inhumanly gold? Why did his fingers taper off with those nails that were too much like talons to be real nails? Why was he wearing clothes that no one had seen for at least forty years? Best start with asking his name. "Who-"

"Not now!" he snapped, obviously grouchy. "I told you I'm not in the mood. Call me tomorrow or whatever."

With that he turned, as though he was going to walk out the door. But halfway there he seemed to melt into red smoke and faded from a sight. The smoke left behind made Kagome cough and waft her hand before her face to clear her vision.

It smelled like Sandalwood.

When the kitchen had cleared of the thick smoke, which was rather quickly because the stuff seemed to evaporate into thin air, Kagome stared at the spot he'd disappeared and blinked, trying to figure out what she'd just witnessed.

People didn't disappear into thin air. It was as simple as that.

Maybe there was something in that spaghetti sauce…

She finally shook herself and told herself she was just tired and under a lot of stress lately. Being thrown out of the Shrine because they couldn't pay the bills wasn't easy. Having to leave the city and all her friends wasn't easy. Having her father run off with some Swedish blonde and leave the family without any money had been what started it all. That hadn't been easy either. And now she was being forced to live in a creepy old haunted house. Not easy.

Yes, it was just stress, she decided as she bent down to sweep the shattered shards of glass into a pan so no one would walk into the kitchen tomorrow with bare feet and get any nasty surprises.

She got another drink and found her way back to bed, mostly by following the sound of Souta's snoring through the halls. She tucked herself into bed and turned off the light and tried to sleep.

No such luck.

After tossing and turning for god knows how long, she finally sat up and turned the light on. She looked at the three bottles on the bedside table and reckoned the third one with the undamaged stopper must have been the boy's bottle…

A Genie or something…?

No, that was a stupid notion. Genie's lived in lamps – besides the fact that they didn't even exist! She'd hallucinated, that's all. She was just tired… yet she didn't feel like she needed to sleep anymore.

She took Kikyo's journal and reread her last few entries. All this talk about wishes…

She flicked through the last few empty pages of the journal – but stopped at once when she spotted more writing close to the end of the book. Her throat went dry and her voice was a mere brittle whisper as she echoed the written words. "Beware the curse of the 10th Generation Wishbringer… Inuyasha…"

Kagome slammed it shut and nearly threw the book back onto the table, turned off the light and flopped down with her entire body buried under the covers.

She realised that she may have just stumbled in on something over her head…

AN: First chapter done and dusted. The second one should be posted soon I hope.


	2. Wish Number One

AN: I'm back at last – with the second chapter. Sorry about the wait, I'm not usually this slow but I've had a lot of Internet problems lately. 

And since you asked Hibiscus I've been writing since I was 11 I think (I'm 16 now) though some stuff I wrote back then makes me cringe and think 'maybe I should have come up with a plot for that story before I started to write it…' But I discovered Inuyasha only a year or two ago, after discovering it through Ranma ½, and fell in love with all the characters (aside from Naraku of course… and possible Kikyo). However I only started writing on ff.net since August last year!

I hope that satisfies your curiosity ^_^

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 2

Wish Number One

The strong morning light through the window beside Kagome's bed was what probably woke her up the next morning… that or Souta wrestling with the chest of drawers to get his clothes out of the sticky drawers. She made a mental note to remind her Grandpa about curtains and separate rooms as she pulled the covers over her head and tried to pretend that she was someone else… a certain someone who lived in a Shrine in central Tokyo that could still keep in contact with her friends.

It wasn't until Kagome had listed all the bad things in her life, that she remembered the latest one.

Ever so slowly she pulled the covers back down and peered over them to stare at the three bottles on her bedside table. The experience of the night before came flooding back with sudden clarity and she bit her lip… had it been real?

The answer to that was obviously no. Boys didn't have long hair – major real world fact number one. And they certainly didn't have claws like some kind of… dinosaur… perhaps that was the wrong association… But she also knew for a fact that boy's didn't materialise and dissipate at will before her eyes – that was physically impossible!

Obviously she'd been under a lot of stress lately and had imagined the whole ordeal. She'd probably been sleep-walking again and dreamt that a Genie had come to offer her a dream come true – ten wishes to get her out of this living hell. Of course, it wasn't quite a living hell… but she certainly wasn't liking her new home or her new life ahead of her. 

Kagome shook her head as she decided to put the Genie boy to the back of her mind and settle back down in her bed to catch up on her rest. Well, that was the plan, but her mother had other ideas.

"Kagome – you have to get up soon – it's Monday!" Mrs Higurashi yelled at the top of her lungs to be heard through the big house.

The extracted a rather painful groan from the teenager as she found something new to add to her list of 'Bad things which happen to me'. But there was no point beating around the bush, and so she swung her legs out and pushed herself out of bed and onto her feet with the grace of a baby elephant. She padded across the cold floor on her way to pick out her new school uniform from her drawers.

It was brown… ugh… and the style had gone out twenty years ago. She wrinkled her nose in dismay and tottered off to find the bathroom.

As she wandered aimlessly though the corridors she wondered what on earth she'd do with ten wishes anyway? She remembered something in the junior years of school, where each student had to decide what they would wish for if they were given three wishes.

Practically everyone had wished for world peace and to solve world hunger with their first two. Kagome had decided that since everyone else was feeding all the starving children and making politicians shake hands, she could afford to be a little selfish. 

Her first one would be to wish for a pony – a black one called Clover. That had been her fantasy at the age of six. Though where on earth she'd put this pony, she had no idea. There had never been any room in the Shrine for one, but that hadn't been important.

Wish number two would be for a house made of sweets and chocolate. So she could grow up nibbling at the curtains and never have to go to the candy store again. Of course, with that kind of house, she'd probably weigh three hundred pounds by the age of twenty five. No need to go to the candy store? She wouldn't be able to get out of the front door to _get _to the store with that much blub. She'd end up having to eat around the door frame…

The third wish had been rather self indulgent (as though the previous two weren't). She wished for a thousand more wishes, and swore that she'd use at least one of them to cure cancer and purge hatred and evil from the world. Maybe.

But that had all been when she was six. What would she wish for now? She obtained a dreamy sort of smile as she floated to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face. With ten wishes she could be a little less restrained with the wishes. She'd definitely wish for world peace straight away. She'd wish to become some exotic princess and have her own palace and servants and lines of gorgeous men just queuing up to try and woo her. Ah! Speaking of men – she'd wish that the cute boy at school would just glance in her direction for once. Sod that – she'd make him fall head over heals in love with her!

But she'd probably never see cute boy again…

Lost in her thoughts, she tripped over the two steps in the hall and banged her shin on the top lip. "I'd wish I were less clumsy…" she hissed with pain.

With another sigh she heaved herself up and continued to the bathroom to get ready for her first day at a new school.

^_^

Souta looked up from the river as he heard the front door go and his sister stepped out of the house with a rather disgruntled sort of expression. He mentally tutted and rolled his eyes. Kagome could be so stubborn and fixed in her ways sometimes… she wasn't about to accept the change in scenery as easily as everyone else.

Mrs Higurashi appeared at the door to wave them off. "Remember what I told you both! School's just down the road now – keep going right and you'll hit it in no time."

Kagome still looked ticked off as she took Souta's hand and dragged him off down the road.

Of course, 'just down the road' seemed like a few hundred miles to Kagome. The road was long, boring and very quiet, and school was right at the opposite end to Grandpa's house.

They were late when they arrived eventually – mostly because Kagome had gotten lost on the way to bathroom again. Kagome; being held responsible for her own tardiness as well as Souta's, was dragged immediately before the head mistress and given 'you've not only let yourself down…' routine.

If that hadn't been a bad start to the day enough as it was, then Math's being the first lesson made it the worst start ever. She arrived halfway through the lesson and obviously offended the teacher by doing so – who'd then been only too delighted to discover that Math's was not Kagome's strongest subject in the world!

It had been a teasing torture for the next hour… the teacher had delivered lovely easy questions to the other students, such as 'what is seven plus three?' or 'what is two times five?'. And when he got to Kagome he randomly gave her a question like 'what is the square root of three hundred and fifty one?'.

She almost fainted with sheer relief when the bell rung, signalling break time was commencing. She optimistically (and foolishly) pretended that the day couldn't possibly get much worse that it had already. Things could only get better.

Wrong.

^_^

Mrs Higurashi hummed and smiled to herself placidly as she arranged the freshly cut flowers in the vase before her on the kitchen table. She leaned forward and sniffed the wonderful fragrance before positioning the vase dead centre on the table and sweeping up the fallen cuttings with her hands.

She dropped the scraps into the bin before moving to wash her hands in the sink – Lily pollen was always a bad one to stain your fingers and clothes with. As she washed she absently glanced up through the kitchen window to look out at the garden outside – before doing a sudden double-take, her hands freezing in the soapy water.

But there was nothing there now… but for just a second she could have sworn she'd seen a white haired boy lying on top of the large, rusty oil tank a few metres away, the same way snoopy the dog would lie on his kennel. But now there was nothing, except for the sway of the white flowers on the trellis surrounding the oil tank. Perhaps she'd mistaken them for a moment…

With a frown she pulled back from the sink and snapped the water from her hands. "Dad?!" she called into the house. "You know when you said this house wasn't haunted…?!"

^_^

"I don't believe it!" Kagome fumed as she left Souta back at the river outside the house where he seemed to belong now, and stomped off into the house with a smouldering temper. She slammed doors in her wake and fisted her hands by her side. She planned to go lock herself in her room and sulk for a good portion of the day, but first she wanted to load her problems off onto her mother.

"Mom – you won't believe this!" she started angrily as she entered the kitchen. "I don't think I could have had a worse… day… if… you… what… um…" she trailed off slowly, her anger slowly turning to confusion as she watched her mother tacking up some garlic beside the kitchen window.

"Hello, Kagome-dear." Her mother said cheerfully, as though there was nothing strange happening at all. "How was your day at school?"

"Mom – have you been watching the twilight zone again?" Kagome frowned. "What's with the garlic?"

"Just vanquishing evil spirits, honey." Her mother replied breezily.

"Oh… ok…" Kagome came forward to take a closer look. "We have a vampire infestation then?"

"Oh don't pretend to humour me – I'm just doing it for your Grandfather. I said something about ghosts – big mistake – and now he's putting up all kinds of charms against evil." Her mother smiled lightly before dusting her hands and turning to look down at her daughter. "So how was your day?"

"Horrible." Kagome said, allowing her expression to fall. "The Headmistress gave me detention in the first five minutes, then the math's teacher picked on me all through the lesson because I'm new and stupid at maths and then this group of 'tough guys' decided to follow me around at lunch, and the only way I escaped them was the hide out in the girls' bathroom, and even then I think the only reason I got away with it is because they were too stupid to look in there."

"Aw." Her mother stroked her hair sympathetically. "Maybe it'll be better tomorrow."

Just the reminder that there was another school day to come set Kagome into an even deeper mood. Don't forget about Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday school days. "Great… maybe I'll just go hang myself tonight and save me the hassle." She griped as she stomped off, leaving her mother to continue her job with the garlic.

Kagome managed to find her way to her room without too many wrong turns and flopped down onto her bed, burying her face into the pillow and waiting for the tears to come. Funnily enough, she realised that maybe she was too angry at herself and her situation to feel completely miserable. In a way that was good… anger kept her from being a manic depressant… now there was a pleasant thought.

Her mother must have come in at some point in the day because the bed was made beneath her and the window was open to let some fresh air in. She noted this vaguely as she heard the sound of Souta's childish giggling bubble up from below. He was probably playing pooh-sticks with Grandpa over the bridge again. Well at least someone was enjoying himself…

Kagome closed her eyes and let her anger go… she really couldn't hold onto it for very long… she sagged visibly and felt a prickle of tears. "I wish I could just go back home…"

"Would that be your first wish?"

For a moment Kagome wondered how her mother had suddenly got such a rough, masculine sounding voice. She lifted her head slowly and fixed a confused gaze on the large hand that was rested casually against the bed stead. No, her mother definitely did not sport such hands… or such nails… Curiously she followed the arm up to the owner of the hand and blinked stupidly when she met sharp gold eyes.

A perfect moment of complete stillness and utter silence descended on the small bedroom, as Kagome stared and the boy stared back. Until he suddenly flashed that same slightly conceited smirk he'd shown the night before. "Hi." A small fang was glimpsed.

"No!" Kagome threw herself away from the bed and slammed unsteadily into the rickety bookcase against the wall. She crumpled to her feet and hid her face in her hands. "No – this isn't real – this is all a dream – I've fallen asleep again and I'm dreaming of the Genie boy again-" she pinched her arm, hard. "Ow – wake up – ow – ok… ok… a hallucination…" she took a deep steadying breath, still with her eyes screwed tight shut.

She'd count to three and he'd be gone… everything would be normal… one… two… three…

She lowered her hands timidly and peeked her eyes open… to see him still standing there, head cocked and watching her like she was an alien. She slapped her hands back over her eyes and battled to stay calm. Ten! One…two… three…

"Oh, pull yourself together." That same strong, large hand closed around her forearm and dragged her to her feet. Kagome snatched her arm back the minute he released it and leaned back against the bookcase, spilling a few old books in the process… before she hadn't been able to look at him – now she couldn't even blink in fear of taking her eyes off him. He'd touched her… she'd felt his hand… he'd felt very real to her…

"You…" she struggled to find her voice. He narrowed his eyes impatiently as she tried to form to the words. "Y-you…"

"Oh fuck… you're not a mute are you?" he groaned suddenly. "You didn't talk much last night – look – if you can't make the wishes then why the hell did you bother opening the bottle to summon-"

He suddenly yelped and drew back sharply as Kagome gave him a sharp pinch through his shirt. "What the hell was that for?!" he exploded.

"You're real!" she exploded right back. "I'm not imagining you!"

"No shit Sherlock…" he rubbed his offended chest with a distinct scowl in her direction. "What were you trying to do – give me a nipple twist?!"

"I was just making sure-" she interrupted herself. "Hey wait – who the hell do you think you are coming in here and yelling at me like that?! I should call the police!"

"And what would they do with a Wishbringer?" he retorted acidly.

Kagome swallowed her reply in surprise. Her supposed dream last night seemed to be very real today… "You… you weren't kidding last night… when you were talking about those wishes… were you?"

He snorted and moved to flop onto her neatly made bed. "This is business. You don't muck around in business." He told her shortly, folding his arms behind his head. "We have two ways of doing this, the fast way or the long way. Personally I prefer the long way, seeing as it lets me remain active for a few days at least, but with you, maybe we should make this a short visit and you make all your wishes within the next ten minutes for all the joy that I'll have in _your _company." He gave her a sideways look as he said this.

"What?" Kagome had been too lost in shock to really catch what he'd said.

He glared at her. "Ain't you listening to me? Which way will it be? Long or short?!"

"What are you talking about?!" she defended herself with a cry. "You talk so fast about this wishing stuff – what the hell does it mean?"

"Right, right…" The boy took a deep breath and forcibly relaxed back onto the bed. "You're a newbie… I keep forgetting… usually when people pop to the cork on the bottle they know exactly what to expect, I don't have to beat around the bush."

"Just…" Kagome reset the bookcase behind her which was now oddly tilted. "Just tell me… what are you…? You can't be… human."

"Well you're sure earning your keep at school aren't you." He responded dryly. "No, I'm not human."

"Then… you're a Genie?" Kagome's voice hitched slightly.

A slow smile spread lazily across his face. "Nope. There's no such thing as a Genie."

"No, I saw the film – everyone saw that Disney film where Aladdin rubs the lamp and a Genie pops out to-"

"What, you mean that stupid old Arabian tale?" The boy scoffed. "That tale's so old everyone got confused. The 'Genie' was a Wishbringer – he was just named Genie. It's a stupid, misleading story that has stereotyped Wishbringers and you would be wise to forget it."

"Oh." Was all Kagome managed to say to that. "So… if Genie was the name of that other Ge- I mean, Wishbringer… then what's your name?"

He seemed to take his time answering. "It's Inuyasha. But you can call me whatever the hell you want."

"No… Inuyasha's fine." Kagome nodded quickly. "But… I'm confused… how come Aladdin got three wishes and you're supposedly giving me ten?"

"Because that Wishbringer was a third generation and I'm a tenth generation." The Wishbringer named Inuyasha told her like he was speaking to a slow witted child. "Obviously."

"Well… how come you're tenth and he was-"

"Because the Wishbringer which made him was a second generation and the Wishbringer which sired me was a ninth Generation." He told her bluntly. "Got it?"

Kagome didn't think she had anything. She just remained quiet as she stared at the ground, trying to process all this new information. With a sigh, Inuyasha pushed himself to sit on the edge of the bed, facing her. "You want me to go through the rules again, girl?"

Kagome nodded slowly and sank down onto Souta's bed.

"Ok. I'm a tenth Generation which means you get ten wishes, no more, no less, understand?"

Kagome nodded again, confident that she had that part at least.

"You can't wish for me to conjure stuff. Like I said, I can bend Physics but I can't break the rules. Though I'm working on it." He gave her that humourless smile again. "But if every Wishbringer in this world could conjure then this world would be overflowing in all sorts of crap that's popped out of thin air and what kind of place would that be?"

"A very messy one." Kagome agreed.

"Right. And no wishing people back from the dead. Like with the conjuring stuff – dead people need souls which are usually already being used my new people, so if I raise the dead then you'll just make zombies which go around consuming souls. Not pretty and not very pleasant smelling either. So I can't revive people for you." He gave her a conspiratorially look. "But I can kill as many people as you want, though."

Kagome swallowed. "Um… next rule, please."

"No wishing for me to be your sex slave, trophy husband and so on so forth. I said before that I am obliged to smudge your pathetic existence from this earth and wait for a new master to come along."

"I… wasn't planning on doing that." She told him uneasily.

"Good, then I won't have to kill you." He responded seriously.

"Has that ever happened before?"

"Anyway!" Inuyasha seemed that dodge that question well by making a show of standing up. "The last rule is that you're not allowed to set me free with your last wish."

Kagome perked up. "Does that mean I can set you free with my ninth wish then?" she asked brightly.

He flinched slightly and looked at her. "No." he said shortly. "I only said the last wish because I know your type. You think 'oh, poor thing, stuck in a bottle to sleep for decades at a time – why not set him free', but of course your type would take advantage of my power for nine wishes before oh so generously setting me free with the last wish. But since you ask – you can't set me free with any other wishes either. It's just not done."

Kagome shifted slightly on Souta's bed. "So, you can't wish yourself free?"

"That's the catch about being a Wishbringer. You have phenomenal power to change the world, change people, all at the simple utterance of 'I wish…'. But try using that power on yourself and you end up killing yourself. Or end up using that power outside of wishing, and you end up killing yourself still."

"Your power is only for granting wishes then?" She asked, watching his face intently. He wasn't showing much.

"I can do little things… like…" He flicked his wrist and a book went sailing out of the bookcase towards Kagome. She caught it quickly before it smacked her in the face. "Not much more than that or it takes my life force. So you can't catch me out with the 'Simon says' trick. I can't give you anything unless you say 'I wish' otherwise I'll implode. Understand?"

Kagome nodded, slightly stricken.

"Good." He folded his arms. "Now what will it be?"

Kagome stared at him a moment, taking in the sight of him. He couldn't have been much older than she was… seventeen at most… and wearing some rather old looking and moth eaten clothes she'd seen in a long time. She couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her.

"Something funny?" he demanded sharply.

"No… it's just that…" she looked up at him again. "You don't really look like a Genie… sorry… a Wishbringer… I suppose if anything, I was expecting bangles and earrings and blue skin and-"

"Turbans and a lamp. I know." Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Very cliché image you know. It's amazing how stupid and ignorant people can be."

"I guess…" Kagome noticed the way one ear was twisted towards the window, listening to the sounds of Grandpa and Souta outside, while the other was trained on her. "So Wishbringers have white hair and dog ears?"

"No. That's just me." He narrowed his eyes slightly, both ears training on her… making her feel extremely uncomfortable to know he had all his sense trained on her. "But that's stepping into personal space now. Make your first wish, or do you intend to keep on stalling with small talk and chit chat for a bit longer?"

"I… I don't know what to wish for…" she admitted. "I could have anything?"

"Anything." He was watching he with all the focus of a cat eyeing the mouse.

"I…" she averted her eyes away from him, down to the book she held clasped in her hands. "I've never thought about it seriously. I wouldn't know where the begin…"

"Sure you do. How about a black pony… no… a black horse, I think you'd outgrow a pony. You could still call it clover though."

Kagome shifted her gaze back to his, the fine hairs at the back of her neck standing up in apprehension.

"And you could wish to be three hundred pounds instantly without going through all the trouble of eating your way through your house." He cocked his head again with a slow smile. "Or you could have your heart's desire. To get out of this hell hole." He cast a disapproving look around the bedroom. "Get away from all this dust and grime and get back into your beloved city centre. Would you like that? Is that what you want above all other things?"

Kagome didn't like his tone… she didn't like his expression and she didn't like the way he was watching her the way a predator watched its prey. She vaguely recalled Kikyo's journal… the warnings, the wishes she regretted…

But he was offering to take her back where she belonged. Something she needed, something only he could give her. Just one wish and she'd be back home in the Shrine.

"Where's the catch?" she asked warily. "Ten wishes. There must be some sort of catch."

"Oh, a clever one." His smirk broadened so it was nearly a grin. "I have to admit most people aren't that bright. They plunge headfirst into wishes for all sorts of lame stuff like money and beauty. They never stop to think about a catch."

Kagome frowned slightly. "You're not answering my question. Is there a catch to this?" Was there a curse…?

He regarded her for a moment before shaking his head slowly. "There is only one catch… but you already passed it. The only catch to gaining ten wishes is the one in a million chance of finding a Wishbringer to grant them. You've won the lottery, girl. That's the catch. The sheer pot luck of finding me."

Her frown deepened. "There has to be something more than that… something you're not telling me… like I have to sell my soul to you or something afterwards… or die…"

"Don't be so grim." He admonished, but his eyes still remained complacent. "I swear to you on my life that there is no other catch. What you see is what you get. I can't lie to you, you're my mistress."

Kagome watched him a moment. He was hiding something… but she didn't know what.

"Are you going to make your first wish yet… mistress?" he prompted. "Do you wish to be back where you belong or perhaps you'd prefer to have a C cup instead of a measly B?"

Kagome's jaw clenched slightly and she self-consciously folded her arms over his chest. "All I have to do is wish for it… and you'll give it me?"

"I think I've made my point pretty clear by now, don't you think?" he waited for her.

Kagome chewed her lip before lifting her head to face him. "I wish to be back home, where I belong. I want to move back to the Shrine."

That secretive little conceited smile tugged at his lips as he inclined his head slightly. "As you wish."

AN: Inuyasha, an evil Genie? Apparently… 


	3. Another Hit and Miss

AN: No one quite got how the wish could go wrong… but you'll find out in just a moment. (It's like pin the tail on the donkey – we'll see who figures out the closest disaster that the wish could bring?)

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 3

Another Hit and Miss

In the time it took Kagome to blink, everything had changed. The air that filled her lungs seemed fresher, less musty than a few moments ago – not to mention her settings had changed completely. Before she'd been sat on her brother's bed, looking at the Wishbringer… and now she was standing at the back of a fair sized room, watching people pray on their knees.

For a long time Kagome was too surprised to even move a muscle. She scanned the room with confusion, wondering where the hell she was exactly. Then it finally, and belatedly hit her, she was in a small Shrine. A Buddhist altar was set at the head of the room, complete with burning incense and tablets of names of the deceased… there were quite a few.

Kagome had never in her life seen this room, this miniature Shrine… something wasn't right. With a stumped and stupefied expression she slipped out through the doors as quietly as she could but stopped dead outside.

She'd stepped into a rather white looking corridor. Two women in nurse uniform passed by with a polite smile in her direction whilst a man in a wheel chair with a drip attached to his hand was wheeled past by a third nurse.

Kagome didn't have to be a genius to realise that she was in a hospital.

And since when had she mentioned anything about a hospital in her wish?!

It didn't take her very long to get angry, but it was mostly to cover up for her fear. When she'd made that wish she'd been half convinced that nothing would happen, that maybe the boy had been a figment of her imagination. But in the blink of an eye, literally, she'd been… teleported? It took incredible power to do something like that… she wasn't sure she wanted to be messing with it.

"Excuse me?" Kagome flagged down a passing doctor. "Could you tell me which hospital this is?"

He gave her a strange look but answered nonetheless. "Murayami Hospital."

"Murayami… are you sure?" she blinked in surprise at him.

"Pretty sure, yes." He nodded.

"Thank you." Kagome was as confused as ever as she toddled off in search of a payphone. The ones in the lobby of the hospital were in use, so she was directed out of the building to the phone booths outside. With the bit of small change she had she planned to call her mother… what else could she do?

Kagome pulled open the heavy door of one of the boxes and stepped inside. Glumly she picked up the receiver and punched out her home number… problem was… she didn't remember her new phone number… after all, she'd only been living there for a few days. "Ah… crap…" She thumped her forehead against the machine miserably. "Ow…"

There was a knock on the glass door behind her and she looked up expectantly… to see Inuyasha standing outside giving her a cheerful little wave. "You don't look happy." He called. "Something the matter?"

Kagome all but threw herself out of that booth to face him, anger burning her cheeks and clenching her hands into fists. "What the hell is this supposed to be?!" she yelled at him. "I said I wanted to go home! Murayami hospital is no where near my house!!"

He snorted and folded his arms. "You said nothing of the sort."

"Well I sure as hell didn't ask to be sent to hospital!" she swept an arm around her. "Does this look like _my _shrine to you?!"

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHe looked around dubiously. "I can't really say, because I've never seen your stupid shrine." He saw her about to make another angry outburst and cut her off. "You asked to go back to where you belong – and by the philosophical degree exacted in the twelfth century – every person technically belongs wherever they were born, be it a hospital, barn, or the bathroom in a train carriage. You were born in this hospital if you don't remember."

"What?!" Kagome shrieked. "That's not what I wanted! I wanted to go to my Shrine – I said that!"

"Yeah, the shrine here, right?" Inuyasha glanced at the hospital.

Kagome gave an exasperated groan and leaned against the side of the phone box. "You _knew _this wasn't what I wanted… I wanted to go home…"

"Even if I'd done that you would have been alone." He pointed out dryly.

"How come?" she glanced up at him.

"Because you never mentioned anything about family in your wish."

Kagome sighed and dropped her head again. "I bet Aladdin never had this much trouble…"

"Well if you wanted your wishes granted with much initiative on my part maybe you should have found yourself a fifth generation or higher. It's not my fault you're stupid enough to make vague wishes and expect me to grant it exactly the way _you _want them."

"You mean I have to watch what I say?" Kagome narrowed her eyes sharply at him. "That sounds like a catch to me."

"Say it however you like." He shrugged with a smug look. Kagome's eyes narrowed to slits at his evident attitude.

"Do you even _care _about this?!" she snapped. "How the hell am I supposed to get home?! I can't remember my number and my family don't even know I'm gone!"

"No need to stress." He rolled his eyes. "Just wish to return back to the old house."

"No – because you'll probably send me to Siberia or some crazy place like that." Kagome replied angrily. "You could have at least told me to be careful about the wishes! Now I know what Kikyo was talking about!"

Inuyasha's attention had snapped completely on her again at the very mention of the previous girl's name. "What did you say?"

"I said you could at least have told me to be careful!"

"How could you know Kikyo?!" Inuyasha's face was suddenly before her own with such a dark and stormy expression that her anger left her in a heartbeat and she took a wary step back. "Kikyo was before your time – she died forty years before you were born!"

"I-I found her journal…" Kagome stammered. "She mentioned… wishes… you… and something about a curse…"

"This journal?" he suddenly reached into the air, making her flinch as though he were about to strike her – but all he did was pluck the old book that had materialised into the thin air beside her head. He turned the book over in his hand, looking at it flatly with disdain. "What a load of garbage."

The question was out of Kagome's mouth before she had a chance to think about how it would be taken. "Did you kill her?"

Those intelligent deep eyes locked on hers. He didn't move or make any move to answer.

"Did you kill her father?" she continued quietly. "Did you take her voice away so she couldn't sing? Did you give her the old house because she wished it? Did you find someone for her to love, but didn't allow for her to keep it?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes and… yes." He replied through clenched teeth. The book in his hand turned to ash and fell to the pavement. Kagome's eyes followed his dusty hand as it fell back to his side before raising her eyes to meet his. She wasn't sure she wanted ten wishes anymore.

"I want to go home." She said eventually, turning a frown to the pavement.

Inuyasha leaned back slowly and stuck out his hand. "Give me your change."

"Why? You intend to rob me too?"

"Just give me the money." He scowled at her. "I remember the number."

Warily, she handed the change over and watched as he stomped off into the phone box. He picked up the received and leaned against the side as he tapped out the number for her home. There was a few silent beats. Was he going to talk to her mother for her?

She started forward towards the door, intending to take over when Inuyasha suddenly spoke into the phone.

"Hi, Mom, I think I'll need a lift home… yes… well, you remember Eri's father had that trouble with his heart, well he had a heart attack."

And he said all this in a perfect imitation of Kagome's voice. She stared at him, not really realising what he was saying, but fixed on the rather feminine voice that she vaguely recognised as her own.

"Well Eri wanted me to come down to Murayami hospital for emotional support – oh don't worry – he's ok – just a bad case of indigestion… Yes… I will… thank you… I'll see you soon then, I'll be waiting outside."

He put the phone down and pushed the door open. "Well she seems nice."

"You… you just pretended to be me."

"Well you're too slow to think of a good excuse and sound like a natural liar."

"You don't know that. I lie very well actually." She told him tersely.

"You're lying right there." He folded his arms.

She shook her head and hugged herself. "I suppose I should thank you at least… why did you help me out?"

"Because you might wish to turn me into a frog next time for 'cheating' you."

"Don't give me ideas…" He'd be lucky if she didn't throw his bottle into a river and walk away laughing. She didn't plan on using any of her future wishes… not after he just blatantly admitted to murdering a girl and her father…

"Call me again when you think of a more suitable wish." He said suddenly and disappeared before she had a chance to protest. With a sigh she went to sit down on the concrete steps and put her head in her hands, running her fingers through her hair wearily as she contemplated the enormity of what she'd just wiggled into.

She didn't understand Inuyasha… at first he'd come across to her as some arrogant, slightly peevish and petulant boy. Not much older than herself. But now… all that bad ass attitude was just superficial it seemed… under the surface he seemed to have hidden agendas… hidden motives…

Was he trying to help her, or hurt her?

Something told her that he wasn't a good guy… but he didn't quite strike her as a bad guy either. Those eyes held so much… like he'd seen more things than she could imagine… and that look in his eyes when she'd mentioned Kikyo…

Kagome blew out a sigh and closed her eyes. Inuyasha was a puzzle to her… but maybe she should just leave him be… instead of trying to figure him out?

^_^

Inuyasha licked his thumb idly as he leafed through the pages of the large book he held against the pillow. He sniffed, the dust rising from the old pages tickled his nose and made his eyes itch, but he eventually found the page he'd left off at and flopped onto his back to prop the book on his chest to continue reading.

No sooner had he started reading than he heard the front door go and two female voices entered the house. He paused briefly to look towards the door of the small bedroom before going back to the book. It wasn't long before he heard light footsteps ascending the stairs, coming towards him.

He didn't bother looking up as Kagome entered the doorway, but out of the corner of his eyes he saw her stop upon seeing him and lean against the door frame.

"Nice drive here?" he questioned idly, not looking up from the book.

"Three hours. And it rained like the Niagara falls on the windscreen all the way." She replied.

Inuyasha grunted an even response and turned the page.

"I've been thinking…" Kagome started.

"Easy, girl."

He heard her sigh and move further into the room until she was standing beside his bed. He still didn't bother to look at her. "Do you… have any control over how you grant wishes?" she asked.

Inuyasha was having trouble reading beyond the first sentence of the page he was on. Why did this girl have to ask such perceptive questions? Why couldn't she be like every other master he'd had and just assume that he was evil and that was the end of it. "What makes you say that?"

"Do you deliberately make wishes turn out bad or is it just like… you know…" she struggled for words. "Just the way it works?"

"It's through no fault of my own that you word your wishes badly. If you want to move back to your shrine you have to make at least five or six wishes before you get it right." He smirked slightly. "You only have nine left you know."

"I know a better way." She said suddenly.

"Oh?"

"I wish for 25,000,000 yen."

Inuyasha slapped the book shut and gave her the slow clap with a long hard incredulous look. "Congratulations – you're the fifty-sixth master to ask for money – and I've only had sixty-two masters in total."

Kagome shifted uncomfortably under his glare. "It's not what it looks like."

"Oh I don't blame you. But I really thought you were different." He sat up on the bed and propped himself up on his hands. "But you do like to prove me wrong don't you. Well, it's cliché, boring, lame and greedy but if that's what you want…"

"It's to buy the Shrine back." Kagome told him suddenly. "Wishing for it directly seems to create too many problems and misunderstandings… so I'll get the money and we can do it ourselves."

"Twenty five million will only buy back the Shrine. Why don't you wish for a hundred million and never have to worry about being evicted again?" he pointed out.

"I don't need a hundred, I just want my Shrine back, thank you." Kagome responded evenly. "So. I wish for twenty five million yen right now."

Inuyasha sighed and stood, handing a bag over at the same time that had just appeared in his hand. "Here, take it." He dumped it into her arms. "Go buy back your stupid house."

Kagome blinked at him a moment before peeking inside the bag and gasping. Her arms nearly turned to jelly… she couldn't believe she was holding that much money… "Thank you." She whispered breathlessly.

"Don't bother with gratitude." He grumped as he flattened out on her bed again. "It's not like I have a choice."

"Well… thank you anyway." She had turned and run out of the room before she had a chance to see the slightly perplexed look he gave her.

^_^

"Mom!"

Mrs Higurashi looked up as her daughter blew into the kitchen like a small hurricane. It was quite a surprise to see her so happy and excited suddenly when only a few minutes ago she'd be a miserable little camper in the car all the way home from Murayami.

"What's that?" her mother asked idly as she noticed the bag clutched in Kagome's arms. Kagome's grin spread even wider and she trotted forward to dump the bag on the kitchen table before flinging it wide open, bearing all.

Mrs Higurashi dropped the plate she had been drying. It smashed on the floor at her feet but she paid no attention as she stared at the pile upon piles of bills inside the bag. "What on earth…?" she helplessly tottered over, staring widely at the money. "How did you…"

A call from the hall interrupted them. "What was that crash?" Grandpa and Souta arrived at the door moments later – and their reaction to the money was very similar to Mrs Higurashi's. Souta was the first to break out of the stupor as he rushed forward to Kagome's side and picked up the top wad of bills.

"Is this what I think it is?" he sniffed the money before flipping through them. "Wow… did you steal it Kagome?"

"Don't be silly, I found it in the attic." Inuyasha was right, she was a terrible liar, but right then her family were too shocked and absorbed by the bag to notice.

"How much do you think is here?" Mrs Higurashi murmured, plucking the money away from Souta lest he run off with it.

"Twenty five million… I counted before I came down." Kagome watched her mother with barely suppressed excitement. "You know what this means don't you… twenty five million could buy back our old house-"

"Kagome – we can't keep this money!" her mother cried as she gaped at her daughter. "That would be stealing!"

"What…?" Kagome stared back at her mother, her smile sliding off her face tragically.

"People do not just find twenty five million yen in their attics everyday – this money doesn't belong to us, we have to give it to the police." Mrs Higurashi firmly closed the bag and broke the spell of awe it held over them all.

"But Mom!" Souta wailed.

"No buts – we can't keep the money, Souta." His mother shook her head at her son.

"Can't we just keep a little of it?" Grandpa pleaded with his daughter. "Just enough to buy a hot tub-"

"Or an indoor heated swimming pool!" Souta leapt in.

"Yes!" Grandpa agreed with his grandson.

"You're as bad as he is!" Mrs Higurashi told Grandpa with a frown. "I'm sorry, but this money must go to the police, it just isn't right to keep it… how could we live with our consciences if we just take this money and use it."

"I could." Souta shrugged.

"Me two." Grandpa nodded.

"Not going to happen!"

"But Mom-" Kagome jumped in quickly, clutching her mother's sleeve. "You don't understand – this money is ours – it's not stolen!"

"Kagome, I'm pretty sure I would know if we had twenty five million to our name."

"But…" Kagome struggled to find some excuse that didn't sound too far fetched as 'I wished for it from a Genie'. "Everything in this house is Grandpa's and the money was in the attic – it's his! Maybe… maybe it's some of Kikyo's old fortune left over!"

"Kikyo? Who's Kikyo?" Her mother echoed.

"The girl who lived here before us!"

"The one who died with the smile." Souta added helpfully. "In the attic. Hey – do you think it's some kind of Mafia conspiracy and Kikyo got caught up in financial trouble and stole the money from gangsters who came after her and they'd be like, knocking on the door and she'd be like, hiding in the attic clutching the money to her chest and then they'd come up and kill her – but she'd already hid the money under the dead pigeons so they'd never know where it is and-"

"Souta – shut up!" Kagome snapped. Her nerves were already rattled enough as they were. After all… she knew the truth about how Kikyo died…

"Then it _is _stolen money." Mrs Higurashi shot back at them.

"Um…" For the life of her, Kagome could think of no other excuse as to why they should keep the money for themselves. Perhaps she was about to spill the secret… tell them she had a Genie boy in the bedroom… sorry… a _Wishbringer_ boy in the bedroom reading 'Paradise Lost'. That he was the one who had given her the money… who'd teleported her straight to Murayami faster than you could say 'Don't be stupid Kagome'.

But before she could utter a word of the truth, Souta suddenly shushed them all and they fell silent, straining to hear what he was listening to. The only sound in the house was the radio playing in the living room. Up until a few moments ago, it had been playing classical music, but had now been interrupted by a deep voice news reader.

"-Urgent news bulletin: Local police have reported that exactly twenty five million yen has disappeared from the vault in the Central Bank of Izu. Eye witnesses are baffled and specialists are searching for the missing millions this very moment-"

The signal broke up and the news bulletin was lost… all they heard was plain white noise echoing from the living room. They all turned their eyes to the money in front of them.

"I think… we should be taking this to the police." Mrs Higurashi said slowly, looking up at Kagome who had a hand pressed to her mouth.

"No wait!" Souta cried. "We have to wait a while and then the police will start offering a reward for the money to be handed over!"

"You little money-grubber." Mrs Higurashi scolded her son. "We can't keep the money, we have to give it in to the Bank. Don't you understand?"

Kagome's hand dropped from her mouth and she took a deep breath. "She's right. We can't keep the money… it's not ours…"

Souta made a rude noise under his breath and stomped off grumbling about women. Grandpa just nodded in agreement with Kagome. "It's best we hands it over."

Kagome left them both to decided how they would contact the police and give the impression that they weren't the ones who'd stolen the money. She padded through the hallways, up the stairs and stopped silently at the doorway to her bedroom. "You…"

Inuyasha smiled placidly from where he was sat on her bed. "Something the matter?" he asked in a deceptively innocent tone.

"You _took _the money… from the _bank_…" Kagome ground out furiously. "You _stole_ it!"

He clicked his fingers and clicked his tongue in a 'foiled again' sort of way. "It was the news report wasn't it? I knew I should have cut it off sooner. You would have been none the wiser."

"You stole the money and you thought it would be ok!" Kagome stormed into the room to face him angrily, "What would have happened if we'd tried to buy the house back now – they would have _known_ that we were the ones with the money – we could have been arrested and put on trial!"

"They can do that now, huh?" he looked thoughtful. "That puts a damper on the fun…"

Kagome pressed her hands to her faced and squashed a scream. "This is ridiculous – I didn't ask you to steal the money!"

"Well where was it supposed to come from them, eh?" he snapped back. "I told you – I can't conjure! If you want money it has to come out of someone else's pocket. And it was better to come from a bank than some poverty stricken family, right?"

With a groan Kagome slid to sit down on Souta's bed. "This is too much… I can't believe it went wrong…"

"Guess you aren't as bright as you thought then." Inuyasha said, a small smile playing on his lips. "Nevermind. You wouldn't have been able to keep the money anyway, even if it wasn't stolen… your mother was having none of it was she? You still have eight wishes to go. And please try to make the next one more imaginative."

Kagome snapped a glare on him.

"I'm sure there are more important things that you want other than your stupid house. I could give you anything you wanted. I could make you insanely happy as long as you make the right wish." He stood and cocked his head as he folded his arms. "I could make you beautiful… so beautiful people would weep at your feet thinking you were some kind of angel. I could make you famous, more famous than Elvis."

"Yes, you could make me famous and beautiful." Kagome said evenly. "But you could also probably ruin my life through it. You'd make me so beautiful that I'd get unwanted attention and start getting stalked by creepy men. And you would make me so famous you'd make people sick of the sight of me. Before long I'll be famous for being so hated. Infamous if you like."

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her. "Not as stupid as I thought… you learn fast…"

"Faster than Kikyo?" Kagome met his gaze steadily.

"Unfortunately for her, yes." Inuyasha unfolded his arms and rolled his shoulders as through working out the tension in the muscles. "Well, who needs fame and beauty. They're just as cliché and lame as fortune anyway. How about I turn you into a man?"

"Not something I strive for."

"But it's one wish that tends to work without any kind of hitch." He replied. "I once had a master who wished to be a woman – because he'd fallen in love with a lesbian. Unfortunately for him, the woman declared she didn't like blonde women like him and he was destined to be stuck as a woman for the rest of his life. He'd used his last wish on something lame too, so he couldn't turn himself back."

Kagome stared at him.

"Kinda reminds me of that time when a master wished to become a tree – in love with nature I suppose… but irritatingly, that was his fifth wish. And I was stuck with a tree for a master for about two years until I eventually found a passing woodsman who would cut down the tree for me and even then it took about a week for the stupid tree to actually die after being hacked down. But in the end I eventually went back to sleep until someone new picked me up…"

"It seems everyone who takes you on ends up miserable or dead." Kagome commented.

"That is so not true." He said indignantly. "There are plenty of people who went on to lead a normal life after meeting me."

"Yeah… like who?" Kagome challenged.

"Like… well…" Inuyasha ticked off his fingers, counting under his breath before looking back at Kagome. "Um… oh – I know! There was this one guy – he was like my second ever master – and he went on to become Master of all Japan."

"Hah! Pull the other one." Kagome rolled her eyes.

"No seriously… I think his name was… Noddy… no… Nobunaga… Oddy Nobunaga or something…"

Kagome turned a slow shocked gaze to him. "What… you mean Oda Nobunaga."

"Ah – that's it." He nodded. "See? Now there was a man who knew how to make his wishes – destroy the opposition and equip his armies with western Firelocks… though I never thought they were a good idea… they had a disturbing tendency to blow up in your face. But hey, they worked for him."

A frown appeared on Kagome's face. "But Oda Nobunaga was murdered at a fairly young age."

"Forty-eight isn't young."

"He still died." Kagome pointed out.

"It's not my fault his generals assassinated him. That's what happens when you get involved with power struggles. He _was _a bit of a ruthless man. He didn't care who I had to kill… regardless of their age or innocence."

Kagome's gaze faltered to her lap.

"So you see… not all people end up as bad as… as bad as Kikyo ended up."

"I don't care." Kagome gave a light shake of her head. "Just go away."

"What?"

"Just leave me alone." She pushed past him as she made her way back to her head and flopped onto the mattress, face down. But great… now her bed smelt vaguely of sandalwood.

A few moments later she looked up to see if he was still there… but he was gone… and she was alone in her bedroom again. She returned her face back to her pillow and squeezed her eyes shut.

She hated this house. She hate sharing a room with her brother. She hated the musty old smell of dust and how everything was covered in it. She hated the way her bed dipped in the middle like an elephant had been using it for the past few decades… she hated that she'd probably never see her friends again, that she'd never see a decent shopping centre again, or that she'd never get decent hot water either. And above all things… she hated this school…

Kagome hugged her pillow tighter as she mentally grimaced. And, as people tend to do when they find themselves in a miserable position, she began to cry quietly to herself. "I hate this house… I hate my life… I hate this school… I wish I never had to go there again…"

She'd said it simply for the sake of depressed rambling, already forgetting that these days, wishing wasn't as far fetched as she used to believe. And she was too far gone with tears and sobbing to hear the soft voice elsewhere in the room.

"As you wish."

AN: I wish it was that easy to get money… I can keep on dreaming though… 


	4. Kagome's Revenge

AN: I've finally made it back to the city (Yay!) About damn time.

Anyway, in answer to a few questions, this story won't be one chapter for every wish (ie. 10 chapters) because I find that a little restricting and I get very superstitious about how I plot each chapter… don't ask… but if I start a trend of one chapter per wish and then break the trend, a ladder will fall on my head or something stupid like that. But this story shouldn't be much longer than eleven or twelve chapters… I can't stretch it beyond that I'm afraid.

****

Bottle Genius

Chapter 4

Kagome's Revenge

The second day of school was somewhat easier than the first. Mainly because she had no math lessons that day (but it meant that she had double maths tomorrow as a result). Kagome drifted through the time table monotonously, learning nothing knew and praying that time just speeded up so she could get out of school all the faster.

She was an average student, not incredibly brainy, but in no way dumb. She just worked her hardest and she usually ended out on top… but that had been when she'd liked school… now she hated it… found no interest in it and was already aware that if she didn't slap it together, she'd fall behind.

Of course, she could always ask Inuyasha to make her one of those effortlessly clever people. The ones who did no work and no revision and still got ninety odd percent marks in their exams.

But then again Inuyasha might just made her brain explode as a side-effect… best not tempt fate.

Science was her next worst subject to Maths… but fortunately the teacher was a fairly decent woman and didn't pick Kagome out for her weakness. Her strongest subject was history… but with such a boring history teacher, she was fast losing interest in the topic, and in the surprise pop quiz about when indoor plumbing was invented she found she was already slipping behind again.

Lunch time wasn't much of a relief though. Normally she'd be hanging out with her friends, talking about nonsense and boys and the new singles out in the music stores… but here she had no one. So she busied herself with some Chemistry homework.

Glancing up absently from her work she spotted Souta getting along very well with the other kids his age… well… at least one of them was happy in this hell hole. However… Souta was one of the lucky ones here. She moved her gaze over to the corner of the playing field where a boy Souta's age was being pushing around beneath a tree by some of the older kids around her age. She sighed and put her pen down, wondering if she should go try and put a stop to the bullying herself, or go to a teacher. But a fat lot of good those people were… she'd already complained once to a teacher about a case of bullying and the teacher had just kind of shrugged and said there was nothing to be done about it.

Kagome was about to stand up and stomp off to go tell the bullies to knock it off when someone sat down in front of her, blocking her view of the bullying. She refocused her gaze quickly to see the girl who now sat opposite her. She was a very plain looking little thing with glasses and freckles and hair so frizzy it was a wonder if she ever combed it. "Don't bother girl, you'll only get beat up yourself."

"Excuse me?" Kagome blinked at her.

The girl jerked her chin behind her. "Don't help the kid, it's not worth it."

Kagome opened her mouth to protest but when she looked back to the tree, the bullies had departed and the boy was safe again… for the time being. "How can the teachers just let them do…?"

"Dunno. They're not what they used to be them teachers." The girl rather presumptuously pulled Kagome's homework book towards her and flicked her gaze over the pages. "And what is this crap?"

"That's Physics." Kagome took the book back, already irritated by the girl's attitude.

"What a joke!" the girl crowed. "A spherical world? What a crazy idea… everyone knows it's flat! You'd fall off the bottom if this were true!"

"Right." Kagome closed the book slowly, intending to make her getaway from the crazy girl.

"Anyway, that's not what I came to talk to you about." She waved her hands as she reasserted herself. "Have you thought about anything new yet?"

"What?" Kagome stopped packing her books away. "I think you have me confused with someone-"

"No I don't." the girl said bluntly, before spying someone across the field. "Oh he's nice looking… do you want him? You can have him if you want."

"What?" Kagome followed her gaze with a frown before looking back at the girl. "Are you ok?"

"Oh I'm fine." The girl replied breezily. "Except this skirt is kinda annoying… I'm not used to them. Too short I believe… But still. Anything you need help with – extra homework, bullies, crushes, stalkers – all you have to do is wish."

Kagome froze and stared hard at the girl. A small smile tilted the girls lips in a familiar fashion and for a moment those muddy hazel, brown eyes flashed a vibrant amber through the spectacles. Kagome's breath caught in her throat. "Inuyasha!" She hissed.

"Yes?"

"What are you _doing _here?!" she looked around hastily as though someone might see him for what he really was. "And what on earth do you look like?!"

"Like your average country bumpkin." He flashed a small grin that revealed a set of braces. "No one looks twice at the ugly girl. What better way to get around and see this place you hate so much?"

"You are unbelievable." Kagome smouldered angrily, stuffing her books back into her bag again. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Because you're my mistress and I can't leave you until you complete all ten wishes." Inuyasha responded mildly.

"You still have the nerve to talk to me that way even after you cheated me of those first two wishes." Kagome snapped at him as she heaved her bag onto her shoulder and stood up from the table. "Do whatever you want here – but don't let anyone see the real you – or else I'll be in trouble."

For some reason what she said amused him. "You're already in trouble, girl."

Kagome watched him a moment, trying to figure out what he meant before giving up and shaking her head. "Whatever. Just leave me alone you… you… animal!"

"You viscous little cow." He called mockingly after her as she began to walk away. "You may have just scarred me emotionally for the rest of my life!"

"Somehow I think you'll survive." She said dryly as she marched back into the school building.

Inuyasha waited a moment, just in case she popped her head out again to yell out another insult, but she wasn't coming back. Casually he glanced around to check no one was looking in his direction before ducking under the table like he was attempting to retrieve a lost pen. When he emerged he wore Kagome's face and Kagome's body.

Arrogantly he flipped his hair over his shoulder and practised batting his eyelashes. "I'm a total bimbo. I have nothing but air and jolly robins between my ears and I think Inuyasha is the hottest guy on the face of this earth."

Yep. Sounded just like her. He looked around discreetly to make sure no one had noticed the change before his gaze fell on a likely looking motley crew a short distance away, picking on another junior kid. He smirked and pushed away from the table. It was time to get moving on that third wish…

^_^

Kagome tapped her pen against her notes and stared at the graffiti scratched into the surface of the table she leant on. Obviously her pen-tapping was annoying the other inhabitants of the library and she looked up when one of the teachers shushed her angrily.

"Sorry," she murmured and went back to trying to solve the algebra equation. Bah… algebra… it was the worst thing invented since… since… actually she didn't think there had been anything invented that could possibly be worse than algebra. She sighed and pushed her books away, leaning her chin on her hands as she tried to think of the perfect wish that could get her out of Izu and back into the Shrine. Something that wouldn't have loopholes… something that couldn't be interpreted a different way, otherwise Inuyasha _would _grant it the other way from what she wanted.

Outside she could hear the voices of the other students picking up in volume, until she heard the distinctive chant of 'Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!'. Kagome rolled her eyes and tried to close her ears to the sound. Another fight? How childish… it seemed like fights broke out every few minutes in this school. And the teachers would do sod all about it as well…

Three girls who were sat at another table giggled their way to the window to look out at the fight outside. After a few moments they simultaneous gasped. 

"What is she doing?"

"She's crazy…"

"All those guys against her – she's one dead bird…"

Kagome's interest piqued and she lifted her head to look at the window. She couldn't see over the ledge so she stood and stepped over to the window where the girls were and looked out.

It was a big fight apparently, all the students outside had gathered in a large ring and in the centre was just a mass of moving bodies. "What's going on?" she asked.

"The guys decided to pick on the new girl I guess." One girl answered without looking up at Kagome. "Looks like she's fighting back for a change…"

"New girl?" Kagome peered harder, trying to make out details of the brawling students. For a moment she thought it was some kind of battle royal… they were just fighting each other… but actually, now she looked properly, _all_ of them were targeting the slight, raven haired girl at the centre who was delivering kicks and punches with the strength and power of a two hundred pound boxer. Members of the gang were practically being thrown in every direction.

"She's strong." One of the girls commented.

"Steroids." Another snorted contemptuously.

"Some kind of drug at least…"

Kagome suddenly hurtled away from the window and out of the library so fast she surprised even herself. She flew down the halls at god-like speed… ish… barging past other students in her hurry to find an exit. She eventually found a fire exit and pushed down to bar to release the door and hurry off towards the fight in the field. Behind her she heard the loud ringing of the fire alarm going off and grimaced to herself. Her old school's fire exits had never done that…

She reached the edges of the gathered students and valiantly tried to push her way through the evil chanting children. It wasn't working… the crowd was too thick and she wasn't as strong as the other Kagome who was currently rugby tackling two boys at once.

"Inuyasha!" she yelled, her voice drowned out by the chanting. "Inuyasha – what the hell do you think you're doing! You're going to get me into trouble!"

She ducked between two students to get nearer to the actual fight… she almost regretted it. This put her in the centre of the crowd, amongst all the pushing and shoving kids while she tried to stay on her feet and keep getting enough oxygen. "Inuyasha!" she yelled. "Stop it! You stupid violent jerk! Inuyasha!"

Miraculously he heard her. She saw him duck a blow from a rather heavily built young man before turning to fix his gaze straight on her. Kagome realised with dismay that he was really enjoying himself… his eyes were bright with mischief and excitement and he was grinning like an idiot. The heavily built boy took another dive for him, but in an eye blink Inuyasha had ducked again, kneed him the stomach and had darted towards her.

Kagome stiffened in surprise as she saw him approaching at the speed and shoving power of a runaway rhinoceros. She realised just what he was about to do, a fraction of a moment too late. "NO – don't you dare you-"

She was cut off with a sound 'oof' as he tackled her hard to the ground and landed on top of her. In the split second that followed he simply grinned at her with her own face and disappeared with a small wisp of scarlet smoke. Kagome lay on her back, breathing hard and staring up at the sky.

The students around her were parting… but Kagome only realised this when the face of her Math's teacher popped into her view of the blue sky. He did not look happy.

"Higurashi. To the headmistress' office… now." He grabbed her arm none too gently and hauled her to her feet.

^_^

"Care to explain what possessed you to take on two dozen boys in a grappling brawl?"

Kagome fidgeted nervously in the uncomfortable chair before the headmistress' desk. Behind her was her form tutor and to her right was her Math tutor. Kagome had lost her voice… what else could she say? Her evil twin had started the fight, not her? They wouldn't believe that… no one would… she'd doubt it herself. But they'd be even less likely to believe that the girl fighting those prats was actually a boy and a Wishbringer boy at that who was over five hundred years old if Oda Nobunaga was anything to swear by.

The woman who sat behind the desk before her was tiny and very shrew or sparrow like. Kagome already disliked her… seeing as the woman had already set her in detention yesterday.

"Well?" the headmistress pressed.

"I… I don't know what to say…" She really didn't. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone…"

Except Inuyasha had. She'd seen the look in his eyes when he'd been beating the crap out of those other boys, he enjoyed throwing those punches… he lived for fighting. Kagome's gaze fell her the hands she held clasped in her lap. Her knuckles had gone white. But she couldn't understand why Inuyasha had done such a thing… she hadn't realised he was out of her control like this. Wherever he seemed to go chaos and disruption seemed to follow. Whoever he met, all seemed to meet their own sticky end. Maybe he really was evil?

"Six boys have broken noses." The Math teacher to her right rattled off, making Kagome start nervously. "Two have broken arms and seven have broken ribs. The others have black eyes and bruises and split lips. You brutalised them, Higurashi."

Didn't they think it was a little odd that little old Kagome had beaten up two dozen boys like some black belt Jackie Chan? Well… the entire student body who'd witnessed the fight couldn't be wrong. Kagome bit her lip. "I didn't mean to…"

"Not to mention we found this in your locker." Her form tutor stepped forward and placed a shoe box on the desk. Kagome had never seen it before in her life, she was sure of that much. The form tutor removed the lid and all occupants of the office leaned forward to take a look.

"What is it?" the headmistress asked with a puzzled frown. Kagome echoed her question silently in her head.

"It's a home made bomb set to go off five minutes from now." The form tutor told them.

Kagome drew back with a gasp in her chair. Her form tutor glanced at her. "Don't worry, I unplugged it."

"Care to explain why you have a bomb in your locker, Higurashi?" The headmistress asked, warily eyeing what looked like an egg timer attached to a small radio.

"I-I…" Kagome stammered as she looked from one teacher to the other. "It's not mine! I didn't put it in my locker – I suck at electronics – how could I make a bomb?!"

They didn't believe her if all the grim faces watching her was anything to go by.

"I think…" the headmistress pursed her fingertips together as she rested her elbows on the table. "I'll have to call your mother… you're expelled from this school, Higurashi."

Kagome sank down in her seat miserably. 

^_^

Inuyasha sighed in a self-satisfied way as he watched the scant few clouds drift across the blue canopy above his head. Kagome would be home any time now if that phone call had been any indication. The girl's mother had answered the phone… and her thirty seconds of shocked silence was enough confirmation that the wish had been granted. His smirk had widened when he'd heard the muffled voice of Kagome's mother echo, "Expelled…?"

The woman was off collecting her daughter now, and Inuyasha lay once more on the oil tank outside the kitchen window, his head pillowed on his arms and his legs crossed with one foot bobbing gently in the air. Somewhere around the other side of the house, the old Grandpa could be heard sweeping the dust and dry dirt off the outdoor steps and the porch, his brush making a rhythmic sound that Inuyasha could bob his foot to.

Of course if the old bat wandered too close Inuyasha was prepared to disappear… it wouldn't do to get caught skulking around this place.

His ears perked up as he heard the distant sound of a familiar motor engine approaching along the country lane. Chances were, it was the Higurashi's car – not many other vehicles came down this road. Besides, he recognised the tone of the engine.

The car pulled up outside the house and the engine went quiet. The slamming of two car doors followed and Inuyasha tilted his head better to hear the voices around the other side of the house.

"… I don't care what they say, Kagome, they must be stupid if they believe a model student like you could be a trouble maker…"

Mrs Higurashi received no vocal response from her daughter apparently.

"There must have been some sort of mistake. But it was a rotten school anyway… you're probably better off being home schooled now."

"Home… schooled?" Kagome finally spoke up.

"Well there's no other school for miles, we have no choice." Mrs Higurashi told her. "Aren't you coming in the house, Kagome?"

"No… I… I think I'll just go for a walk…"

The front door closed and Inuyasha turned his head back to watch the clouds… that one over there looked uncannily like a sheep with no legs or head. Kagome was approaching the oil tank, but he ignored her presence in favour of cloud spotting.

But without warning, a surprisingly strong hand grasped his sleeve and yanked. Hard. He was totally unprepared for the rude greeting and slipped straight off the oil tank with a cry of surprise and fell straight to Kagome's feet. She didn't waste any time insulting him or glaring at him. She just grabbed his ear and started to drag him away – he had no choice but to follow or risk a very bruised ear in the morning… her grip was unnervingly strong.

"Bitch – let go of me!" he griped as she tugged him along the grassy garden and into the trees. "Did you hear me you deaf cow?! I said let go!"

She didn't reply or make any indication she'd heard him as she dragged him over the quaint little bridge of the river and into the trees on the other side. She didn't stop until she seemed to decide they were far enough from the house. He wondered why she'd taken him so far away… perhaps to murder him horribly. She turned to him calmly after releasing his ear, he tottered back a few steps, rubbing it angrily. "What the hell was that for?" he snapped.

"_FOR RUINING MY LIFE!_"

The scream echoed around the surrounding trees like some kind of Banshee's wail. Inuyasha blinked in surprise as a flock off crows took flight somewhere from the trees beyond their small clearing. "I didn't." he replied, but without much conviction.

"You stole my form and then you beat up two dozen boys – we all saw it! Not only did you do it to satisfy you're overly aggressive and violent needs but you got ME into trouble!!" she stormed closer to him and grabbed his hair with both hands to drag his head down to her level. "Now do you understand why I am so pissed off?!"

He slapped her hands away none too gently and moved away from her. "I did nothing of the sort-"

"Why you-"

"You made the wish – _I _granted it for you!"

"Since when?!" Kagome shrieked. 

"Since last night when you were crying and moping and wished to never go back to school again!" he yelled back.

For a moment she just stared at him, not understanding. Then she remembered… "You just took that out of context… I didn't mean I never wanted to go to school again… You must have known I wasn't serious!"

"NO – I didn't!" he glared hotly at her. "But aren't you happy? You don't have to go there anymore – you won't start crying again!"

"I _need _to go to school!" Kagome yelled at him. "I need my education if I am supposed to get anywhere in this world! You took that away and for no reason!"

"A wish is a reason-"

"That wish meant nothing and you know it!" She punched his shoulder angrily. He didn't even budge. "You're so out of control! You're so violent and evil! It wasn't enough that you broke Kikyo's heart and stole her voice and killed her father – but you just had to kill her too! When do you plan to kill _me_?!"

"Shut up! I had no choice! I have to obey wishes whether I want to or not!" he shouted back furiously.

"You do have a choice! You could have warned her of what you were capable of – but you didn't! And you didn't warn me either! This is just your sick way of getting kicks isn't it!"

"You know nothing!"

"I don't care anymore – just tell me how to get rid of you and we'll both be happy!" She had tears in her eyes, he only just noticed, and a small wet trail had tracked down her cheek from the corner of her eye. "If I make any more wishes it may just cost me my life – so I order you to tell me how to get rid of you!"

He narrowed his eyes and folded his arms. "You can't. The only way to get rid of me is to kill me. Or to kill yourself. The only other way is to complete all ten wishes and then you're free of me… but you'll possibly be dead, won't you." He smirked sarcastically. "Now are you satisfied? It's nothing but the truth."

"I hate you!" Kagome seethed, her fists clenched by her side and her head dropped… her eyes were screwed tightly shut as she trembled with suppressed anger or tears… probably both. "I wish…"

Inuyasha's head snapped up in surprise.

"I wish you would just listen to me for once – that you'd understand my wishes and do what I wanted instead of running off and doing it your way! Obey me! Be honest! Tell me what I want to know and do what I tell you to do! That's what I wish!"

Two rough hands grabbed her arms roughly and shook her until her head rose almost fearfully to meet his beyond seething glare. "Take it back!" he yelled in her face.

"NO!"

"You don't know what you're wishing for!"

"I do – I want you to grant my wishes _my _way!"

"You stupid little girl – you have no idea what you're doing!" he shook her again angrily.

"My name is not stupid little girl, or cow, or bitch or wench or anything other than Kagome!" Kagome struggled angrily against his steel grip. "Now grant it!" she screamed, refusing to meet his eyes.

He didn't do anything for a few seconds, they both stood tense and frozen, burning anger coursing through both of them. "As… you… wish…" he ground out dangerously, his eyes narrowing further. "I'm going to make you so sorry for this."

Kagome met his eyes squarely and narrowed them as well. "Well you can kiss my ass, jerk."

With a hard thump she hit the forest floor on her front, half winding herself. "You bastard!" she wheezed, and immediately started to rise up. However, one callused, clawed hand gripped the back of her brown school jacket and pushed her down again. Before she could scream more insults and threats she felt the fingers of his other hand hook around the waistband of her skirt and tug it down. She froze in pure shock and horror as she felt the unmistakable sensation of a pair of warm lips press against her skin just south of her hip.

She couldn't move, let alone breathe, even as he released her shirt and pulled her skirt back up to stand back away from her. She just stared in dumb-founded shock at the ground in front of her, and she only just recognised it when Inuyasha spoke behind her.

"I'm going to make your life a living nightmare… _Kagome_." He said evenly, venom dripping from his tone and somehow made her own name sound like the worst insult of them all.

"Kagome?!" Souta's voice sailed through the trees towards her and she heard the snapping of twigs underfoot as her younger brother approached. She looked behind her in time to see him come toddling through the bushes, lunch box still in hand having just got home from school himself.

Inuyasha was no where to be seen.

"And… what are you doing?" Souta stared at her peculiar position on the forest floor.

Self-consciously Kagome sat up and helplessly tried to brush the dirt stains off her uniform… not much point… she'd never be wearing it again.

"I heard you got expelled for kicking the boys' asses." Souta said, breaking out into a gleeful grin. "Is it true?"

"Um…" she bit her lip before nodding slightly. "Cool! Wait till I get Gramps!" he turned and started to run off before quickly looking back. "Oh – but this doesn't mean you're going to be one of those big sisters who always fights her brothers battles – because I don't want that."

"But I do it already." She replied with a slightly irritated frown.

"Yeah, but that was before everyone realised you were crazy." He smiled broadly and ran off again.

Kagome looked around hesitantly, half expecting Inuyasha to be standing behind her, but she seemed just as alone as she felt. Still trembling from such an emotional tirade she ran her grubby hands over her face and rubbed her tears away.

She felt as weak and anxious as a nervous little baby rabbit… and very vulnerable all of a sudden. She could almost still feel the heat of his lips still burning against her skin, and she cautiously slipped her hands under her waistband to rub her offended hip.

Maybe making that fourth wish hadn't been such a good idea…?

AN: Next chapter – 'Inuyasha's Revenge' *insert jaws music here*


	5. Inuyasha's Revenge

AN: Sorry if I didn't make it clear before, but this fic _is _an Inu/Kag romance (it doesn't look like one though does it?). But the romance sorta begins its hint in this chapter… ish… you'll just have to see for yourself. 

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 5

Inuyasha's Revenge

Kagome had a lot of trouble getting to sleep that night. Maybe it was because there was a mild storm going on outside, and in such an old hollow house, the sound of the rain hitting the roof was close to the sound of rumbling thunder. The window besides her was rattling timidly in its frame, and the tree a few metres from the house had extended its branches to tap incessantly against the glass every now and then.

Somehow Souta managed to sleep through the whole thing – and added to the noise with his soft snoring.

Kagome tried everything to get to sleep. She tossed, she turned, she clamped the pillow over her head, she dangled her legs off the bed, then her arms, and threw socks at Souta to get him to shut up.

But normally storms didn't bother Kagome's sleep… so she had a feeling her insomnia had something to do with a certain white-haired boy. Her brain was working overtime and as a result, she wasn't dropping off as she should be. Her hand kept scratched or rubbing against her hip thoughtfully… irritated that if she closed her eyes and tried to relax, she could still almost feel his lips burning against her.

"Dammit…" she muttered and rolled over, stuffing her hands under the pillow so that she wouldn't be tempted to rub her hip anymore. She screwed her eyes shut and tried to empty her mind completely… but instead, her head was only filled with thoughts of a very pissy, seething mad Inuyasha. 

Her eyes slowly drifted open again as she stared out the window to the gently thrashing branches outside. Why had he gotten so mad at her wish? He'd said himself that he couldn't control how wishes were granted – she'd made that fourth wish to try and control them… but he'd gotten so mad at her…

Her intention had only been to get any future wishes granted more to her taste than they had previously been granted. That was all. He seemed to have trouble keeping them from getting messed up… so she'd wanted to change that.

But the wish had gotten messed up, hadn't it? When she'd told him to kiss her ass he'd thrown himself on her.

Then he'd told her that he was going to make her life a living nightmare.

Kagome shuddered delicately and pulled the covers more tightly around her body as though she'd caught a sudden chill in the air. She'd never had anyone as angry at her as Inuyasha had been. And she somehow she had a feeling that she had yet to experience the full force of the anger he was capable of. He was kinda scary… like some mean demon with flashing eyes, teeth and claws.

With a sigh she tried to move her thoughts on to more comfortable matters, like fretting if she was going to get enough education to eventually get into a university. If she'd ever see any other teenager for the next few years trapped in the country as she was. And how she was going to get the money for Souta's operation to stop him snoring.

She settled down and submitted herself to a long sleepless night.

^_^

"Morning Panda girl." Souta chirped cheerfully the next morning when Kagome sat down heavily at the breakfast table. She just grumbled a cave woman reply and pulled a bowl and a box of breakfast cereal towards her.

"Didn't you get any sleep last night." Her mother stroked her hair affectionately.

Kagome grunted another response, followed by a yawn. Translation: 'no I did not, mother dear'.

"Poor thing." Mrs Higurashi sighed and moved off to fetch her a glass of milk. "I think it was a traumatic day for all of us yesterday."

Kagome remembered vividly being thrown to the floor by an insanely strong, angry, dog-eared boy. Yes… definitely a traumatic day…

"Why don't you go talk to the head mistress?" Souta pointed out round a mouth of cornflakes. "Obviously there's been a mistake – Kagome could never beat up twelve nuts by herself. You could try and reapply her."

"I don't think so." Mrs Higurashi said with a little angry frown. "That school is corrupt to house hooligans like those boys. And blind and stupid if they think our Kagome – a hard working student – could be one of those little cretins. Kagome's better off being home-schooled from now on."

"Can I be home-schooled?!" Souta asked excitedly.

"You wouldn't like it." Kagome spoke for the first time that morning, her eyes still hooded and dark. "You don't get any human contact save for your tutor."

Mrs Higurashi looked at her watch. "You better get moving young man if you don't want to be late on your third day." She set his lunch down next to him and he bore a kiss from her before heading for the door.

Just as he was about to move out of it, he looked back at Kagome and laughed. "On your second day…" he snickered and toddled off.

"What's so funny?" Kagome poked her cornflakes around her bowl until they were soggy and inedible.

Grandpa, who had been sitting quietly at the table reading his paper suddenly chuckled. When Kagome shot him an inquisitive look, he passed her the newspaper and pointed to an article on page eight… "Kung Fu crazy chick, busts two dozen boys in school playground… what on earth…?"

"Looks like you made it into the paper." Grandpa chortled.

Kagome scowled as she read on. "A transfer student from Central Tokyo yesterday disrupted the peace of our local comprehensive school… blah, blah, blah… Kagome Higurashi, 15, started a fight with two dozen Boys… and proceeded to use an obscure form of martial art combat to… I don't believe this… broken arms, legs and noses abound?!"

Mrs Higurashi took the paper and frowned as she read it. "Since when did you learn how to do scissors kicks?"

"It's a mistake – it was some other… girl… who beat up those boys."

"Unless you've been watching one too many martial art flics recently." Grandpa pointed out. She gave him a dry look that clearly told him what she thought of that idea.

"No matter." Mrs Higurashi dumped the paper in the bin, despite her father's protests of 'I was reading that!'. "We have a new tutor for you coming next week. He'll be here four times a week for three hours."

"That's… not a lot." Kagome blinked in surprise.

"Well, it's one on one tuition, just you and the teacher so you can get more attention and help than you used to in a class full of forty other kids." Mrs Higurashi explained as she cleared away Souta's breakfast bowl. "So naturally you don't need as much time with him."

Maybe getting out of that school hadn't been such a bad idea after all…? Kagome mentally shook her head and scowled down at her breakfast. That didn't make it right for Inuyasha to screw her up like this. It was the principle of the matter – he shouldn't have gone and granted the wish like that… even though he may not have complete control over it…

With a sigh Kagome set her spoon down and stood up. "I'm going to go for a walk."

"Do you really need to?" her mother looked over at her pleadingly. "It's just that I have so many chores to do around the house – go shopping and Grandpa has to mend the central heating – you couldn't help us out for a while could you?"

"Sure." Kagome gave them a smile.

"Good – well since the central heating isn't working, it's going to get pretty cold tonight so could you get some firewood from the garage and dry it out for the fire in the living room?" Her mother smiled as Kagome sagged slightly. "Oh don't look at me like that – we all have to help out around the house if we want to earn our keep."

"Exactly." Grandpa chipped in.

"What about Souta? What does he do?" Kagome asked, just for argument's sake.

"He goes to school unlike some people." He mother pointed out of the kitchen window. "You know how to use the axe out there, right?"

^_^

"Stupid house… stupid Souta… Stupid, _stupid _Inuyasha…!" she grumbled as she carried four small logs out of the barn they called a garage. She dropped them on the accumulating pile beside a smooth tree stump and stomped back to get some more, she could only carry about four logs each trip. It would take even longer to carry them all into the house.

Her family better appreciate all this work – and if Grandpa fixed the central heating by that night, she would be very put out that her efforts would have been wasted. 

She dropped the last of the logs into the pile and reached out to pull the axe out of the stump… only to have her hand close on nothing but air… the axe was gone. Kagome froze in surprise… she was _very _sure that she'd seen it there before her last trip to the garage.

She looked around quickly and gave a flinched dramatically when her eyes fell on Inuyasha a short distance off. She'd not noticed him before, and for some reason she seemed even more startled… and nervous… to have him pop out of no where this time. She tried to gather her scattered wits, aware that her hands were trembling ever so slightly. "Oh… h-hello…" she tried to smile weakly, but failed somewhat. It was hard to smile genuinely at someone who was glaring stonily at you whilst bouncing an axe in their hands. What did he plan to do with it…?

Kagome flinched again, unnecessary when he stood, hopping out of the hammock he had previously been sitting in that had been strung up between two tree trunks at the edge of the woods with the river. For a moment the back yard was very still, really the only movement was the cold breeze that blew around them gently. Kagome barely noticed the chill to her exposed legs… not when she was receiving a colder stare from Inuyasha.

He started towards her, slowly but surely, and Kagome had to fight the urge to step back in anxiety. She wasn't really _scared…_ just incredibly nervous and positive that she didn't want to spark off the anger she'd seen the previous day.

He drew a halt a few feet before her. His height towered over hers, intimidating her and subduing her without any conscious effort. Her hands clasped together before her chest and she opened her mouth to try and stammer out some excuse to leave, or for him to leave… she couldn't tear her eyes away from his.

Suddenly his smiled pleasantly and held up the axe. "Do you want me to do the chopping?" he asked amiably.

Kagome's mouth hung slightly open. It was quite a while before she spoke. "You what?"

"It's just that I doubt you've ever used one of these things – and with your noodle arms I reckon you'd take all day." Trust him to turn a kind offer into some kind of insult.

"Oh. And so _you_ have done this before?" her nervousness was leaving her slowly as she begun to realise he was in a somewhat lighter mood than before. Maybe Inuyasha wasn't the type of person to hold grudges…

Yeah, right.

"Of course I've done this before. You think I've lived five centuries for nothing?"

"Well… weren't you sleeping most of that time – and when you weren't sleeping you were busy granting wishes to people? Did you even have the time or the need to chop wood?" she raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yes." Was his simple answer.

Kagome opened her mouth to refuse his offer, before stopping herself. Why was she refusing his help again? She knew jack about chopping wood, and most likely she'd hurt herself like chop her hand off… so best let him do it. "Ok…" she said slowly. "Thank you…" she moved off to the hammock he'd previously been sitting in and pulled herself into the netted, swinging bed to watch him.

For a moment she saw him glance between the axe in his left hand and the talons on his right. Then he looked back at her, smiled again when he saw her watching him, then turned back, holding the axe firmly in his hand to begin her chores.

There was something odd about this… What had happened to that threat of 'I'll make your life a living nightmare'? Why was he being so nice and helpful today?

She narrowed her eyes slightly as she tried to suss out what it was exactly that he was planning. He was half turned towards her, giving her a sideways view of his profile. He wasn't smirking or glaring in anger – the only two emotions she had seen him possess over the past few days. He was just… working… with a similar expression to hers when she did multiplication in the maths. He bent and picked up one log easily in one hand and set it on the tree stump.

He hefted the axe in his hand and drew over his shoulder, pausing a moment before swinging and cutting it in a perfect half – but the axe kept moving until it had gone in a complete circle and it was swinging down towards the log. Kagome blinked and missed most of it – but the end result was a log cut into four equal pieces. Her mouth dropped open slightly in surprise… not many people could handle an axe like that…

He knocked the sliced up pieces into a separate pile with the axe and moved to pick up a second log – double swinging again and letting the four new slats fall into the new pile that was fast accumulating beside him. Kagome just watched in awe – she'd seen wood chopping before – but not this fast. Soon he'd run out of logs…

He got halfway through the pile before he suddenly stopped and let the log drop on the ground. Kagome lifted her head to ask what the matter was – but quickly clamped her lips shut when she noticed he was taking the dark, worn out haori off. He cast it a short distance away and picked the axe back up, working better without his sleeves getting in the way.

Kagome was appreciative… now that she got an ample view of his chest through the gap in his kimono. She physically slapped herself for that sneaky thought… well… lightly on the nose. She scowled as she chased the unwanted thoughts from her head… but…

Glancing back up at Inuyasha, her scowl fading slowly as she watched him heft the axe yet again and bring it down twice in fast succession on the unfortunate log. She could appreciate a good looking guy… that didn't mean she necessarily liked _him _as a person. She just liked his pretty face. After all… it was quite rare to find someone in her age group as nice looking as him. It was allowed to ogle, right?

The hair and the ears puzzled her… she'd wondered at first if that was something all Wishbringers had… but obviously that had offended him when she'd mentioned her thoughts. He'd basically said he was the only one with such attributes… but then why was he the only one? If anything, it made him more canine in appearance… wolfish… if doggish sounded a little insulting and scruffy. Though he was a bit scruffy. That pure coloured hair looked like it hadn't seen a brush in a long time… even from here she could tell it was a coarse texture without even needing to touch it. Though it had potential to be otherwise…

She sighed and once more tried to shake her thoughts off ideas of persuading him to use Pantene Pro V or something like that… maybe Herbal Essences would do the trick…? This time she successful managed to stop thinking about his hair… instead she started thinking about other parts of his body.

He was lucky… to have such clear skin, a high forehead and cheekbones that marked him with a more masculine face… cheekbones any higher and he would have looked feminine (like a certain brother who shall remain nameless in this fic). A straight nose, crinkled slightly at the moment with concentration on precision. A strong jaw and neck that seemed to create the perfect balance between natural grace and concealed strength. Broad shoulders that were drawn back proudly and confidently at all times, she noticed this when he straightened for a moment to look at the pile of wood slats that were creating a small mountain at his side. Shoulders that maybe looked they'd been carrying the weight of the world for a long time… yet they hadn't sagged just yet. She would have liked to know what those weights could be…

"Do you always stare at people shamelessly when you think they're not looking?" he said, startling her out of her examination. He looked back at her and she locked gazes with those incredible amber orbs.

"Yes." She answered simply, seeing his eyes widen in slightly surprise at the boldness of her reply, but he quickly covered it with a short 'keh' and a sneer before getting back on with the chore. She sat up in the hammock, careful to balance her weight so she wouldn't fall out. "I want to know what you're planning."

"Who? Me?" he waved a hand in dismissal. "Nothin'."

"You're planning something – why else would you be offering to do my chores for me?" she narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Only because I don't want you to ask me to kiss your ass again. The reason I left so abruptly yesterday was because I was in a rush to wash my mouth out with acid." This was punctuated by the sound of wood splintering.

Yep… his body may have been nice and athletic, but his personality stunk. Maybe if he'd had a personality like a boy named Hojo back in her old school… maybe she would have felt more attracted to him… but as it stood? She found the axe in his hand more tempting to take on a date.

"You're not a nice person – oh don't look so shocked – you know it too! You're planning something horrid! Now what is it! Tell me!" she demanded.

The axe lowered in his hand until the end was resting scantily on the ground. "I swear to you on my life as a Wishbringer that I am not planning anything against you." He told her… something about that blank expression seemed more earnest than anything else he'd said. She was willing to believe him… for now…

"Then what was with the 'I'll make your life I living hell' thing yesterday?" she questioned.

"I didn't say that." He told her shortly.

"Yes you did!" she scowled. "I remember."

"Obviously you remember wrong – because I said I'd make it a living nightmare – not hell." He replied haughtily. "Actually."

"But… you're not mad at me anymore are you?" she asked carefully. "That I made that wish…?"

"Oh no." he scoffed and shrugged. "Why would I be mad that you took away my dignity and my oral hygiene on top of humiliating me. I'm not mad at all."

Kagome bit her lip. Even she'd noted the sarcasm layered over that, nice and thick. "You are, aren't you…"

He made a vague shrug and bent to pick up another log. "Maybe…"

"What did I wish for… exactly?" she asked, hopping out of the hammock. "I only intended to sort out the problem of wishes… but I don't think it worked did it?"

He gave a harsh bark of a laugh with his back still turned to her. "Ya think?"

"So tell me what happened."

He kept his back turned to her and spoke as he carried on working. "You told me to obey you. Listen to you and be nothing but honest with you. That I had to do exactly as you said instead of going off with my own ideas."

"I only meant… whilst you granted my wishes."

The log splintered in front of him. "Yeah well it didn't grant the way you wanted. Now _I _have to obey your every command. It's not just when it concerns wishes…"

"Oh… so when I told you to kiss my ass…"

"I had no choice." He rather suddenly swung the axe down and wedged it into the tree stump to turn to her. He didn't look so amiable any more. "You really are a stupid little girl, to make wishes like that without realising. Do you have any idea what you've done to me?!"

"I have a name – use it!" she snapped.

"Kagome." His mouth had blurted the word without his own approval it seemed and suddenly his fists clenched and he bared his teeth at her. "Bitch – don't order me around like that!"

Kagome folded her arms and turned away from him abruptly in equal anger. "Maybe this will teach you for screwing up my education so far."

There was a loud crack behind her and she turned sharply to see the axe skidding across the ground, having just been kicked out of the stump by Inuyasha. She gulped slightly, noticing how close the axe had skidded to her feet.

"I don't need your punishment bitch!"

"Stop calling me bitch!"

"Rat faced twit with grass for brains!"

Kagome's jaw clenched and her brow twitched lower. "You know what – you deserve being turned into a lap-dog – it seems the only treatment for such an out of control ugly boy like you!"

"What did you say?!" he exploded. "I am not a lap-dog!"

"Well you are now – so get used to it!" she snapped harshly.

"YOU LITTLE-"

"And lower your voice!"

He bit down on the rest of his angry tirade and steeled himself. "You little cow. I hate you!" he hissed.

"Tell me you like me."

"I like you." He ground out. "I like you when you're clueless about wishes! You're taking advantage of me!"

"Hardly. I haven't made you walk off a cliff yet." She told him, admitting to herself that it was fun bossing him around like this.

"Maybe I'd walk off a cliff of my own free will, just to get away from you." He sneered.

Ah… he was too smart to allow her to get the last word.

"Inuyasha…" she said slowly. "Go take a jump off that bridge over there." She pointed towards the river.

He glared at her a moment, before storming off in the direction of the trees, brushing past her heavily so she staggered. It was worth it though when he disappeared into the woods and a few moments later a loud splash could be heard. She laughed and waved. "Consider this your punishment for messing up my wishes – along with everyone else you've had as a master!"

She turned, intending to head back to the house, but she bumped into a rather wet person the moment she did so. She jumped back slightly, opening her mouth to cry out in surprise – but Inuyasha grabbed a hold of her arms roughly and leaned in close. Any cry died in her throat as she trembled slightly in his grip. No orders of witty comments found the connection between her brain and her mouth…

"I never meant to mess them up!" he all but yelled in her face. Kagome was acutely away of how close he was, and of the water that was soaking from his hands onto the sleeves of her shirt. "I never wanted to hurt anyone! I never wanted to kill Kikyo! I never wanted to kill her father – or _any_ of the fucking Buddhist priests Oda Nobunaga had me slaughter! I had no choice – it's what I am! It's my curse! You're punishing me for my punishment! I don't need your crap when I still have my own to deal with!"

"What-"

But the grip of his strong fingers on her arms disappeared, milliseconds before he also disappeared in a rather loud explosion of scarlet smoke that had her gagging for air and her eyes watering. It was only a few moments before the breeze brushed away the smoke and she could see again… she could also see that Inuyasha was gone.

"Inuyasha – come back here!" she yelled to the empty yard. "What did you mean by that punishment thing! What curse?! I order you to come back and face me!"

But wherever he was, he wasn't listening to her anymore. She stood, breathing hard for a few moments, once more aware that she'd angered him more than she should have and he'd left her in a huff. This angered her more than made her feel guilty and she clenched her hair as she let out a sound that sounded like a squashed scream. "YOU ARE INFURIATING YOU OLD FART!!" she yelled.

"What was that Kagome?" Grandpa popped his head out of a window two floors up.

"Not you Grandpa!" she yelled to him and stomped off to the garage to get a bag to gather the wood Inuyasha had so helpfully cut and quartered for her. Anyone watching her could have sworn she had smoke pouring out her ears.

^_^

That was a start to what was probably about to be one of the worst days of her life. Possibly a little worse than yesterday, but not as bad as tomorrow or the day after. After collecting the wood in a big blue Ikea bag she had then had to stack it up beside the fire place in the living room for it to dry off properly. Not a horrible task in itself… but as she'd done it, she'd been forced to listen to a radio report about some crazy girl who'd kicked off a fight yesterday at school. And she wasn't _quite _tall enough to reach up to the shelf it was on and turn it off.

Obviously not a lot happened in this town if the only interesting thing that happened was a girl getting expelled from school.

In the end she'd lobbed a shaft at the radio, causing it to tip forward off its shelf and fall on the sofa below, losing the signal in the process.

"Hey – I was listening to that!" her mother called from the kitchen.

"Sorry!" Kagome called back, though irritation was edging on her tone.

She finished stacking the wood and stomped off to her bedroom, trying to find some solace and keep her mind off of Inuyasha. She didn't want to see his angry, beautiful face in her mind. And she didn't want to think about whatever secrets he was hiding. So she stuck her nose in a history book and learnt some rather boring facts about when indoor plumbing had been introduced into society. She wasn't really keen on this… but anything to keep her mind occupied.

Then the hammering had started downstairs. Grandpa 'fixing' the central heating unity apparently. She growled in frustration and slapped her book down onto her desk as she swept towards the door to slam it shut in an effort to block out the noise. But the walls were practically paper thin and the noise wasn't muffled much.

She tried to concentrate on her reading but found it near impossible with the incessant banging going on. After a few minutes it seemed like the hammer was banging in her head.

Kagome was beginning to get a headache.

Then the noise had stopped and she looked up for a moment, as if finding it hard to believe the torment was over. She settled down, enjoying her few moments of quiet.

The sound of running feet down the hall alerted her to a visitor and she scowled as she looked up – the door slammed open rather rudely and Souta burst in carrying a shoe box. "Alright!" he shouted. "What did you do with Bessie?!"

"With who?!" Kagome snapped back.

"Bessie! My frog!" Souta yelled. "I left her in the box this morning – but I just got back and she was gone!"

"So – maybe she learnt to hop away – frogs do that!" Kagome turned away from him, pointedly putting her back to him and blocking him. He didn't take the hint as he ran around her other side.

"The lid was on and the elastic band was around it – she couldn't have escaped by herself! Someone let her out – it was you wasn't it!"

"I didn't even know you had a stupid frog!" she turned away from him again in her chair. "Get lost already!"

"I'll tell Mom you're wrecking my stuff!" he threatened.

"I'll tell Mom you're keeping Frogs in the back bedroom – not to mention frog spawn and minnows!" Kagome shot at him.

"So you DID know I had frogs!" He jabbed a finger at her back. "I knew it! You let Bessie out!"

"GET – OUT!" she roared, sending him shooting out the door, leaving it wide open in his wake.

Kagome threw down her book on top of her desk and went to slam it after him, unleashing all her anger and energy as the door crashed into its frame and rebounded straight back. She slammed it a second time, her anger only rising instead of being sated. 

Then the hammer had started up again downstairs.

"I hate this house!" she yelled over the din. "I hate this place! Is it too much to wish for some peace and quiet for once!"

Almost instantly she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked around her, waiting for the Wishbringer to pop out and grant another flash decision wish. Nothing happened… then she remembered… Inuyasha wasn't talking to her or listening to her… so there was a good chance he hadn't heard that last comment… not that it had really been much of a solid wish. More like wishful thinking.

The hammer stopped downstairs… but she didn't know how long that would last. Almost gloomily, she grabbed a different book from the shelf and flopped down onto her bed to catch up on some reaching.

For the rest of the afternoon, her mood began to lift as she read. Inuyasha temporarily left her troubled mind and Grandpa's hammer didn't disturb her anymore. The house was unusually quiet. She toyed with the thought that maybe Inuyasha had granted her wish after all and done it right for a change. But she hadn't heard him say 'As you wish' so there wasn't much chance of that happening. He hadn't even been listening to her wish anyway.

Kagome turned the page of the old book, and caught a sudden tickle of dust in her nose. She lifted her hand to her nose as the sneeze accumulated, before her whole body spasmed as it sprang lose. She'd felt it reverberate through her chest and airways… but she hadn't heard it. Normally she made very loud sneezes, or small ones that sounded like a snort. That had definitely been a loud one… but she hadn't heard it.

She sat up suddenly, acutely aware of the bed springs straining beneath her weight. They always squeaked and groaned… but she heard nothing.

"Hello?" she said rather urgently, or at least tried to say. She didn't even feel her vocal chords vibrate with her voice – she'd said nothing and she'd heard no gasp of air. She clapped her hands – she felt her palms slap together in what should have created sound – but the air around her seemed very still.

She tried to speak again – tried to say her name – but the only thing she felt come out was a rush of air. Her hand deliberately reached out to tip her book onto the floor. It landed with a silent thud, she felt the impact through the bed, and saw the small puff of dust that rose up.

__

I'm deaf… I can't speak… I'm deaf!!! She mentally screamed. She tried to vocalise that scream, but once more she felt nothing but a gasp of air.

She stumbled off the bed to her desk and desperately pushed everything off it onto the floor, in a last ditch attempt to make some noise – but nothing reached her. She continually tried to scream 'hello' but she still felt no voice leave her throat. Panic welled up inside her as she ran for the door and began slamming it back and forth in its frame, but its noise fell on her deaf ears and she was beginning to feel breathless sobs rise up inside her. Tears leaked from her eyes as she went on slamming the doors, waiting for her ears to just pop and sound to return. She sobbed… but without a voice, it hurt her throat.

Something hit the back of her head and she whipped around suddenly, a hand flying to the place a pen had hit her and fixing wide, terrified eyes on Inuyasha. She couldn't hear it, but she could see he was laughing and holding up a jotter that he'd written on.

The words were, 'As you wish'.

AN: I can't imagine anything worse than being deaf… apart from being blind maybe… or both. Anyway, next chapter will be up soon – so you're allowed to hold you breath (if you can hold it for forty eight hours or so).


	6. Tongue Twister

AN: I seem to have a hit a problem… a bit of writer's block concerning Life Exchange and the other stories. I can still write this one but I'm having difficulty with the others and it may be a while before I update Life Exchange, Rules of Acquisition and Where no man has gone before… yes… I haven't just forgotten about those last two.

Oh, and did anyone see the Eurovision song contest? (if you don't live in Europe then the answer would be no). Man… Britain got hammered. Zero points! I blame Tony Blair (not to mention we had a really crap song). Thanks to the war, no one likes us anymore ^_^;; (though I was one of the people striking out of school in anti-war protests (not just an excuse to get out of school)).

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 6

Tongue Twister

"Open wide and say 'ah." The doctor instructed as she lifted Kagome's chin and flicked her pen light on. Kagome obeyed – except for the saying ' ah' part. She sat there, blinking at a poster behind the doctor, checking privately that her own eyes still worked at least.

"Well I can't see anything wrong down there…" the doctor leaned back and looked at Kagome. "And she doesn't have any obstructions or ruptures in her ears… I can't find anything wrong with her."

"But there must be – people don't just turn into deaf mutes overnight!" Mrs Higurashi wrung her hands in the material of her apron… she'd not spared the time to take it off when she'd rushed Kagome to the doctor's office.

"You're right. They don't." the doctor sighed before moving back to her desk and sitting back down. "What was she doing at the time when she lost her hearing and her voice?"

"I don't know… I wasn't with her…" Mrs Higurashi looked at Kagome, as if expecting her to answer the doctor… but Kagome hadn't heard the doctor and returned her mother's look curiously. 

"Does she have any allergies at all?" the doctor went on. "Hearing problems? Laryngitis? Anything?"

"No, she's never had problems like this before." Mrs Higurashi chewed her lip nervously. "Isn't there anything you can do?"

"I can send her to a specialist… but the only suitable one I know lives on the other side of the country, and he doesn't often have much spare time. I could arrange an appointment… but it could take up to six months to see him I'm afraid." The woman watched Kagome who stared back at her. The girl obviously hadn't a clue what she's just said. "Until then… you can only hope her senses return as quickly as they left."

"Can't we get a consultation any sooner than six months?" Mrs Higurashi asked, dismayed.

"Not unless you can afford the heavy payments." The doctor shrugged helplessly.

The answer to that was obviously no. Mrs Higurashi fell quiet and gave Kagome's hand a gentle squeeze. The girl glanced at her mother but didn't return the hopeful smile. In fact she looked slightly angry…

Well it was better than being the teary mess she'd found her daughter in about an hour ago.

^_^

Oh yes… it had all been fun and games, but then someone had to go and lose a voice and now everything was all gloomy and boring. Inuyasha sighed loudly and dramatically as he rolled onto his stomach on top of the oil tank. It was getting dark now… Kagome would be back soon with her mother from the doctors.

Would she still be crying?

Undoubtedly when she got over her initial shock she'd want to batter in into paste… maybe he deserved it. He scowled to himself as he tried to push the guilt to the back of his mind… like he'd done so many times before. Usually it worked. After killing the odd nemesis's of masters past, he'd learned not to think about it… it wasn't his fault, why dwell on unnecessary guilt? Trying not to think about how he'd slaughtered _armies _of Buddhist priests had been slightly more difficult… but the guilt hadn't bothered him much. The only times it really got to him was when it was by accident… when the master didn't realise what they were wishing for…

Like with Kikyo.

She and her father were dead now thanks to the wishes. Not his fault. Kikyo's. He tried to ignore the guilt and repeated to himself again and again that he'd warned her… she just hadn't listened or believed him… He didn't feel guilty, so it must have worked.

Now for making one stupid little madam cry, he felt like a monster.

"Cow…" he longed to all her a bitch… but she'd prevented him from doing so with one of her previous orders of 'Don't call me a bitch!'. He could still call her other things though, like wench… and uh… other stuff. Maybe he'd have to be a little more inventive from now on.

Or he could just use her name and save himself the trouble.

A car pulled into the drive and he was struck by a strong sense of déjà vu. He didn't particularly want to be dragged off into the forest to be screamed at again (despite the fact Kagome couldn't scream anymore). So instead he picked himself up and jumped down off the oil tank – only to land on Kagome's creaky old bed rather than the hard ground beneath the tank.

He flopped down into a sit, elbows resting against his knees as he looked around Kagome's room – also half Souta's room as well. But nobody was in there – or else there would have been various screams about a Wishbringer boy who'd suddenly materialised out of thin air.

Downstairs he heard the front door close, the sound of running footsteps of Kagome's younger brother and the slightly slower footsteps of her Grandpa move into the entrance hall to ask of news. Inuyasha didn't hear Kagome's voice throughout the entire exchange, just Mrs Higurashi explaining the situation. Something about seeing a special person in six months and something more about being able to do nothing until then.

A set of rather angry footsteps could be heard ascending the stairs and he mentally braced himself while deliberately forcing himself to relax physically. Kagome appeared in the doorway of the room, face pale and eyes burning with livid anger he thought he'd only seen in a mirror. He gave her a lop-sided grin. "What's up?"

Her chin rose slightly as she tried to determine what he'd said, but gave up trying to lip-read, seeming to decide it wasn't important anyway. Instead she marched over to her desk and crouched down to pick up a few things she'd knocked off it earlier. She grabbed a pen and a jotter and proceeded to scribble something down swiftly. He stood up to look over her shoulder to see, but she whipped around to quickly and pushed it into his face.

'U S.O.B.'

"What the heck is that supposed to-"

He was cut off as Kagome started beating him around the head with the jotter, mouth set in a grim line as she aimed for his sensitive ears. "Ow – hey – stop that!" he half-heartedly tried to fend her off, though she was too angry and determined to let him get the better of her. After a moment she dropped the jotter and grabbed a forelock of his hair – jerking his head down just enough so she could give him a good hard slap to get across exactly how she felt about him when words failed her.

He staggered back a step or two, a hand raised to his stinging cheek. Out of the corner of his eye he could sight of himself in a mirror and turned to look… he now sported a nice pink mark vaguely shaped like a hand print. When he looked back at Kagome he could see she was trembling with anger, or dismay… actually, both. Tears were beginning to prickle her eyes…

It was strange how she didn't say anything, didn't shout at him… he felt the empty silence rather acutely… even though he knew she couldn't say anything even if she wanted to.

He expected tears to fall, for her to break down crying, but after a moment she surprised him by bending down to pick up the jotter to scribble something down. She held it up after a moment. 'Y?' was all she'd written.

"Because you wished it." He answered. Kagome narrowed her eyes before shoving the jotter towards him, indicating he should write his reply. He complied and passed it back to her. She stared at the answer before turning the page and writing something new.

'I didn't,' was her message.

'U did,' he wrote back.

She snatched the jotter back and wrote down something. 'I didn't.'

"Why didn't you just show me the first message again?" he pointed out, but at her blank stare he gave up. "Whatever…

She then scribbled down exactly how she'd phrased her wish. 'Is it too much to wish for some peace and quiet?' she glared at him and passed the jotter back.

He looked at it a moment before taking the pen and crossing out the 'S' and the 'it too much to'. When he handed it back, it read 'I wish for some peace and quiet'.

'U took it out of context!' she scribbled angrily. 'U can do that?!'

He nodded with a sly smile.

'Y?!' she wrote again.

'Because you deserved it for being a bitch', at least he could write that word, even though he couldn't quite say it anymore.

'So u make me a deaf mute?!' she demanded.

He nodded again, his smile widening even though he didn't feel like smiling.

'I hate u' she slapped the jotter in his chest and went to sit down on her bed. He watched her lie down on her stomach and hug the pillow up to her chin. 

"Big deal. I don't care if you hate me." He told he haughtily as he dropped the jotter onto her back. "Keep it, you might need it later."

She watched him like a hawk, even though she couldn't tell what he was saying. He was just about to leave when she suddenly grabbed the jotter and scribbled something new. He waited for her to hold up the new message. 'I wish for a reversal of my last wish.'

He watched her for a moment before shaking his head. He took the jotter and wrote his reply beneath her message. 'Can't. You need to speak your wishes.'

As soon as she read the reply she began to have trouble breathing. She was on the verge of a panic attack, so he quickly wrote something more. 'It's not permanent. You only wished for 'some' not permanent.'

She looked at him, the question obvious in her eyes. How long?

He held up ten fingers.

She took to jotter. '10 Days?' she asked.

He winced, shaking his head.

'Hours?' was her new guess.

He pointed upwards.

'Years?!'

He quickly pointed down.

'Weeks?!'

He gave her the thumbs up and a grin. "Bingo!" he told her. 

Her expression clouded over like the sky before a storm. She threw the jotter at him, only to have him dodge it. She pointed to the door with a severe glare. She wanted him gone from her sight. He shrugged with another 'keh' and turned around to walk out, dissolving into the air as he went until he was gone from the bedroom.

When she was sure he was no longer in sight she flopped down onto her bed again and cried silently into her pillow.

^_^

The next few days passed incredibly slowly for Kagome. Her mother just couldn't understand what on earth had happened… one minute Kagome had been talking and the next… she hadn't…

Grandpa was of the opinion that dark forces of evil were to blame (he wasn't far wrong) and so while Kagome struggled to tell her mother how she wanted her eggs cooked, the old man ambled around the house putting up wards and charms against such evil spirits. Kagome reckoned it might have worked… because she didn't see much of Inuyasha after this. Though it could have been that they weren't on the best of terms with each other.

Souta thought it was all just some hilarious joke that Kagome couldn't talk and couldn't hear. Fortunately he wasn't so cruel as to take advantage of her and say things knowing she wouldn't be able to hit him for it. Instead he did his mother proud by being careful to enunciate his words when he was speaking to Kagome, so she could lip read him.

But no matter how much help she received from her family, everything was very slow going. And after a while, even Souta had gotten bored of the joke and began to wonder when Kagome's voice would return.

"Kagome…" Souta looked up from his game of solitaire to where Kagome was reading a book on the living room sofa. "Hey, Kagome!" he waved to get her attention since shouting and snapping his fingers wasn't going to help. She finally noticed him and glanced over with raised eyebrows. He grabbed the worn out jotter they'd all been using and scribbled something down to hold up to her. He spoke the words as she read them. "How did you it happen… I mean what were you doing to lose your voice and hearing?"

She opened her mouth to speak but gave up with a sigh, merely shaking her head and shrugging helplessly. She couldn't explain… it was too complicated.

"Do you think it'll come back?" he asked. She read the words from his lips and smiled.

'Maybe', she mouthed back to him then beckoned him closer. He put down the jotter and moved over to the sofa where she'd put her book down as well and stretched out her arms to receive him. He moved into her embrace with a sigh… the things he endured for the women of this family… When he pulled back she saw his gloomy expression and playfully poked the dimples of his cheeks. He smiled despite himself and watched as she grinned back… he wanted to hear her laugh… but that wasn't going to happen was it?

"Souta!" Mrs Higurashi called from somewhere else in the house. "Come help me move this bookcase will you?!"

"Ok!" he yelled back before looking back at Kagome. "Mom's calling – I better go."

With that he flashed her a grin and ran from the room, leaving a clueless Kagome in his wake. She sat for a moment staring after him before picking up her book and staring at it blankly. She wanted to reassure them that this wasn't permanent… that in a while she'd get her voice and her hearing back… but then they'd ask questions about how she knew that. She didn't want to reveal Inuyasha to them… she didn't want to endanger them to this 'curse' of his.

Nine and a half more weeks… she could handle it. But could her family?

Kagome looked up from her book to the hearth and nearly leapt out of her skin when she saw Inuyasha there. She hadn't heard him arrive… and he was talking to her… but she couldn't care less what he said. She was too concerned with calming her heart again.

"… And so I was thinking since you're such a stupid bimbo with no soul – ok I admit that has nothing to do with it. I was thinking that since you're going to be out of action for a while – you know – unable to make wishes as you are – maybe I should take a holiday… yeah… somewhere nice and warm like… um… I'll read up on foreign countries later but… oh… you want something – I'm talking here!" He snapped as she waved the jotter at him. He snatched it and read what she'd written. "Shut up, Inuyasha… Kagome. Read my lips. Elephant stew."

She stared at him for a moment before snatching the jotter back and writing something new. 'Did you just say 'I love you?'

"No I said elephant stew. Can't you tell the difference?!" he kept a serious expression, though it was hard. Maybe it was a bit too much… taunting her in this condition. Ah… it wasn't permanent, he could do what he liked. He dropped the jotter back in her lap and turned his back to her. "I pity you, you little wombat who smells like a gorilla's armpit. I can't bear to look at you, you're so ugly it makes my stomach turn and my chest seize up. You look like a goat who's been crossbred with an alligator… no wait… that's being offensive to goats and alligators. You'd make a pretty fowl looking oni though, that's for sure…"

He glanced behind him to see her reading her book again, unaware of the long insult that had just rolled off his tongue. Damn… he'd only done it because he knew she wouldn't hear. But where was the satisfaction in seeing her ignore him? 

"Excuse me, wench, but I need to go blow up the world after I solve world hunger and bring world peace. That alright with you?" he turned back to her. She just looked up, smiled, and waved.

He sighed deeply… god… life was so dull all of a sudden. Just ten more weeks, then he'd be able to have a decent human conversation again. "Dammit." He cursed under his breath and went to go find something more interesting to do.

He was beginning to regret finding any amusement in this latest wish…

^_^

"Well at least she's still eating healthily." Mrs Higurashi watched Kagome scarf down her second helping of Oden. "I suppose there's nothing lethal wrong with her at least."

"I was thinking of calling a witch doctor," Grandpa started. "There's obviously something mystical going on-"

"No!" Souta and his mother both shot that idea down before it had even taken off the ground. Grandpa just grumbled and went on eating. Kagome was unaware of the exchange, so involved with her food as she was.

"It's getting a little… um… what do you call it…" Souta began.

"Tedious?" His mother suggested.

"You read my mind." He nodded. "All this note writing with Kagome. My hands are cramping up… and it takes so long. Like I wanted to ask her if she'd seen Yuki and-"

"Who's Yuki?" his mother asked suddenly.

"Um… a friend…" More like a field mouse given to him by a friend. "Well anyway – asking her a simple question takes like five minutes. When's she gonna get better?"

Mrs Higurashi sent Kagome a pained look. "I don't know… it's very mysterious this… condition of hers."

Kagome suddenly realised everyone was looking at her and stopped eating. She lifted the little notepad that had been strung around her neck. The top page already had the ever useful question of 'huh?' written on it. They just shook their heads and went back to eating. Kagome shrugged and followed suit.

"There must be some way to help her." Mrs Higurashi sighed. "My poor Kagome…"

"You could always teach her sign language." Grandpa pointed out, still slightly snippy that his idea about the witch doctor had been thrown out the window. "It won't cure her. But at least we could communicate better."

"Grandpa… but that means we'd have to know who to speak sign language too." Souta pointed out.

"I know sign language." Mrs Higurashi perked up. "Back in the old care homes… it was one of the first things us nurses learnt to deal with the very deaf elderly people."

"And I know it too." Grandpa confirmed (being one of those deaf elderly people himself). "Learnt it back thirty years ago when a friend of mine's friend was deaf. The only way to speak to him was with sign language. I taught Ayame." He patted his daughter's shoulder.

"Teach me too, Grandpa?!" Souta pleaded.

"Yes, but first Kagome. She's in more desperate need I think."

Kagome absently looked up at her family and her sticks froze halfway to her mouth. They were all staring and smiling at her again. Why did they always do that?

^_^

There was a limit to how much fun you could poke at a disabled person like Kagome. Inuyasha was already well past such limit by the third week.

"Seven weeks… seven weeks… seven weeks…" he chanted to himself as he stared at the ceiling above Kagome's bed. Kagome herself was sat a metre or so away at her desk, studying literature under the light of her lamp. He discreetly turned his head so he could see her. He frowned when he noticed that her lips were moving ever so slightly, as though echoing the words she was writing down.

It would have been better if she'd still been mad at him. If she still threw things at him and tried to scream at him… but by now she'd just accepted her situation and was back to smiles. He doubted she'd forgiven him… but she didn't seem to be holding a grudge against him. She didn't throw things at him or call him evil or wish that she'd never met him (that had happened sometimes – it usually resulted in time shifts that were annoying as hell, and the master losing all his future wishes and the old ones being revoked). 

There was a rustle from the desk and he saw Kagome rummaging her hand into a packet of malteasers. She popped two in her mouth and went back to work.

The silence was beginning to weigh on him… he didn't know how much more he could take.

"Seven weeks… kill me… seven weeks… I'll kill myself… dear god help me…" He was going nuts with boredom. There was very little he could do these days. Usually most of his time was taken up with granting wishes or talking with masters… and when he could do neither it got very dull indeed. There were strict rules that he couldn't be separated from a current master for more than two days. So he couldn't run off and leave her… though how he wished he could… then maybe he'd find something to do.

Kagome's hand suddenly crept out and he jerked his gaze back to her. She was holding out the packet of sweets again. He stared at the packet a moment, frowning in thought before shaking his head and knocking her hand away. "Not hungry."

She simply shrugged and went back to work.

It should have annoyed her… refusing her offer so rudely should have annoyed anyone. But she'd accepted that it was just the way he was now… she didn't lose her temper around him so much these days…

"I can't take this anymore." He suddenly sat up off the bed and fixed a surprised looking Kagome with a grim look. "I need to talk to you! About anything! The weather – marzipan – I don't care! I just need to talk to someone!"

She hadn't caught a word he'd said, and mistook him for something else. She held out the packet of malteasers again and he clenched his fists. "No I don't want sweets I want human conversation! Is it too much to ask?!"

Kagome pursed her lips thoughtfully before taking her notepad from around her neck and scribbling a note. 'Something wrong?' she asked with an almost innocent air about her hand writing.

"Need… words…" he ran his hands over his face in despair, he didn't remove them. "God, if it helps, I'm sorry I granted that wish the way I did. I could have just left it alone. I could have just assumed that it wasn't an actual wish and just left it alone – but I didn't. That was my revenge and I've never regretted anything like this in my life. I thought it was funny… but it's so _not _funny now… I'm going to die of boredom!"

He dropped his hands from his face to find Kagome pushed away from her desk to move over to her bookshelf to get a new book. She hadn't heard him at all… she'd presumed he'd stopped talking ages ago and was back to her usual business.

"I think I'm actually lonely…" Inuyasha stated flatly whilst her back was turned. "How bad is that…? I'm so lonely, I'm actually feeling a little sad…"

She turned back to him, a frown suddenly lilting her brow. He frowned straight back in confusion as she set her book down and approached the bed to sit down beside him. She took her notepad and writ something. 'Would u do bad things 2 my family if u met them?'. She waited for his reply.

He scowled angrily. He shook his head sulkily and turned away. After a moment she nudged him and passed him a new message. 'If Mom could teach you sign language we could talk then. Me and u.' he looked up at her, noticing how she suddenly avert her gaze. He nudged her suddenly to make her look back, new hope suddenly rising within him.

"How much do you know?" he asked her, before mentally slapping himself for forgetting she couldn't hear. Instead he made the signs. Kagome jumped away from him with a start.

'A little…' she made the small sign with her hand, she shook her head and asked something with her hands. 'How…?'

"Just one of those things…" he said with a shrug. It was too much to explain to her that once a master had wished he teach him how to do signs. Of course that had meant Inuyasha had had to learn signs first in order to pass the knowledge on. It had all been a big complete waste of time… but he'd save that explanation for when she could speak more fluently with her hands as it were…

She wrote something down for him. 'U can help teach me 2? Please?'

The please stunned him for a moment. Not many times over five hundred years had anyone added a please or a thank you. It was always take, take, take. Masters treated him like some delivery boy. Just ask and receive. It was his job so why thank him for what he does?

He gave a short caustic laugh and shook his head. "Whatever… if I have to."

^_^

Home tuition had been put on hold for a while due to the development of Kagome's new 'condition'. Besides the fact communication between Kagome and a tutor would be too difficult, Mrs Higurashi didn't quite think her daughter was emotionally up to dealing with a work load.

But that last point was slowly being re-evaluated over the weeks as Kagome watched her daughter move around the house. She wasn't depressed or unhappy. She still smiled and the speed at which she learnt sign language was impressive to say the least.

"Do you think she's getting outside help?" Mrs Higurashi asked her father as they both washed and dried the pots after dinner one evening. "I mean… at first she kinda stumbled along learning the basics – then all of a sudden she suddenly strung all these sentences together with stuff I _know _I haven't taught her yet."

"She's a fast learner." Grandpa shrugged.

"Mm." Mrs Higurashi still wasn't convinced. "She spends hours sitting up in her room all alone since she moved out of Souta's room… I assume she reads… but doesn't she get lonely up there?"

"Maybe she has a little male friend keeping her entertained." Grandpa chuckled.

His daughter shot him a startled look. "Kagome doesn't have the time to meet and befriend boys – what are you talking about?!"

"A joke – a joke." He brushed off her startled concern. "Kagome's fine… she's just not the type of girl to let things get her down. Don't worry about her."

"How can I not?" Mrs Higurashi sighed miserably. "She's been this way for two months now… will she ever get better? It was just so sudden…"

"It seems you are the one getting depressed here." Grandpa slapped her arm scoldingly. "Buck up! She's not dying – maybe a miracle will occur. And possibly when I order in some new ofuda charms the evil will disperse and Kagome's voice will be free again."

"Right. I keep forgetting." Mrs Higurashi rolled her eyes. "Well that's this done… I'll go sort out the laundry."

"Mm hm." Her father just hummed in agreement as he carried on drying the dishes that she'd washed.

Mrs Higurashi left him to it and went to go pick up the baskets of clean laundry from the small back room where the washing machine and drier were house. One basket for Souta's clothes and the other for Kagome's She trudged up the stairs with both and went to unload Souta's first.

"Don't you ever get off that machine?" she asked her son as she put his clothes back in his drawers.

"Not now Mom – I'm on the last level and Satan's little devils keep taking bites out of me!" he cried as he tapped away furiously at his playstation handset, eyes fixed on the small tv screen in front of him.

"Of course." She shook her head and went to go unload Kagome's clothes next.

She was just closing in on her daughter's new bedroom door when she stopped dead, her hand half way stretched in reaching for the door handle. A laugh… she'd just heard a laugh coming from inside.

Joy surged within her. Kagome had laughed – her voice was back! Although… it had sounded very masculine – but still!

She wasted no time throwing the door back. "Kagome, you-!" her voice seized up in her throat as her eyes took in the situation in the bedroom and relayed it to her brain. Well… if she'd expected to find anything… _this _probably wasn't it.

Kagome was on the floor on her hands and knees and kneeling behind her with his hands beside hers, his body hovering over hers… was a rather… interesting looking boy. They both looked up at their visitor, all smiles and giggles wiping from their faces as the two parties traded looks.

"Uh…" Her mother shook her head slightly, as if trying to clear it. "Why are you playing twister with a boy in your room?" she made the signs to accompany it.

Kagome's hands and feet finally slipped on the slippery white mat below them and she fell onto her stomach with a cough. Inuyasha hopped nimbly up. "I win!" he grinned.

Kagome gave her mother a wobbly smile, before freeing her hands up to 'speak' to her mother. 'I can explain…'

AN: And those of you who were wondering about the punishment thing I mentioned last chapter – all will be revealed next time I update!


	7. A Ghost of the Past

AN: Finally, I think I have a plot coming in this chapter. And from here on out, I think the romance becomes more prominent ^_^ However, I would really like to see romance in the actual series ie. Kissies between our favourite pairing (which means I'll be fighting tooth and nail to get a copy of the second movie when it comes out – and fast forward straight to _that _scene!).

And about the writer's block, it shouldn't last too long I hope. I _do _know exactly how all the stories will play out and how they will end… it's just that I've lost the enthusiasm (I'm depressed, so sue me). But I reckon after a good shopping spree in town tomorrow, I'll be good to go again ^_^

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 7

A Ghost of the Past

"Dad…?"

Souta and Grandpa looked up as Mrs Higurashi came into the kitchen with a slightly bewildered look on her face. "Yes?" Grandpa asked.

"You know when you said Kagome was entertaining boys in her room?" Said girl's mother tottered over to sit down in a chair between the guys.

"Yes…" he answered slowly.

"Well…" Mrs Higurashi blinked slightly. "With twister I think you'll find."

"Oh." Grandpa and Souta gave each other an odd look. Obviously the woman was in a state of shock or something similar.

^_^

'She saw your ears!' Kagome told Inuyasha in full fledge panic. Her hands were shaking so much she was stumbling over her words.

"So?" He replied with a short shrug. "They're sticking out of my head, I can't help it."

Kagome had obviously been getting better at the lip-reading thing. 'How do I explain?!'

"Just tell her the truth!" Inuyasha shot back.

'I can't!' she hesitated a moment, forgetting her anxious pacing as she turned to him and chewed her lip. 'It'll upset them – it'll upset Grandpa! They won't believe me and I don't want them mixed up in all this curse business!'

Inuyasha's brow lowered a fraction. "It's not like I'd set out to kill them…" he grumbled, though his lips barely moved so she didn't catch what he'd said.

'I'll think of something.' She told him and pointed to his bottle. 'Just stay hidden for a while. Ok?'

He gave her a sharp sign with his hands to show he understood, even as his gaze was averted and a deep scowl furrowed his brow. Kagome was taken aback slightly by his sudden mood and would have asked about it, had he not dissipated from the room.

She sighed in his absence and turned to leave and go face the music.

^_^

"Who was he?"

"Where does he come from?"

"How did you meet him if you're stuck in your room all the time?"

"Is he cool?"

"What was his name?"

Kagome held up her hands to stop the flood of questions. They were all talking at the same time and she couldn't understand a word. 'One at a time!' she told her mother with a roll of her eyes.

"What did she say?" Souta demanded.

"She told you to be quiet a moment." His mother told him as she leaned forward against the table, eyes intently on Kagome's. "So what was his name?"

Kagome told her.

"What did she say?" Souta repeated, looking rapidly between Kagome and his mother.

"Inuyasha… his name is Inuyasha?" Mrs Higurashi smiled slightly. "That's an unusual name."

"Where's he from?" Grandpa asked quickly.

Mrs Higurashi translated for Souta's benefit. "She says he's from the next town over. He goes to the comprehensive school. That's how she met him. I didn't know you'd made a firm friend already, Kagome?"

Kagome's head ducked slightly and they could have sworn they saw a slight pink brush across her cheekbones… but it was gone in a moment. Mrs Higurashi wondered exactly how much of a 'friend' he was.

"He'd have to have the patience of Buddha to put up with Kagome like this." Souta pointed out, earning him a kick under the table from god only knew who.

"Where is he now?" Mrs Higurashi asked Kagome.

'He's…' Kagome paused a moment, trying to think of something. 'Gone home.'

"Ah…" Mrs Higurashi nodded before cocking her head. "I couldn't help noticing… the… uh… the ear thing… and… the hair thing…"

Souta glanced at his mother. "Does he have an earring and a mohican then?"

"Extraordinary…" Grandpa breathed.

"No!" Mrs Higurashi shook her head quickly at them. "He had… well… you'd have to see for yourself, but it was very strange." She looked back at Kagome. 'What was wrong with his ears?' she asked.

Kagome smiled sheepishly and shook her head with a shrug. Pity she hadn't thought up a convincing story for that.

"Well… any friend of Kagome's is a friend of ours." Mrs Higurashi sat back with a smile. "You can invite him to dinner some time if you like."

Kagome nodded slightly, wondering if that was such a good idea…

"For now tell us more about him!" her mother's smile turned into a beam.

^_^

Kagome tapped her pen to an irregular rhythm against her text book. Perhaps she'd be able to keep the beat better if she could hear it. Looking behind her, almost to check if Inuyasha was still there, a sudden thought occurred to her.

Maybe now was the time to follow up on that punishment thing…

She tossed her eraser at him, hitting him on the nose. His eyes snapped up and he sat up from her bed. "What?" he griped, rubbing his offended nose.

'What did you mean before,' she asked him with an inquisitive look. 'When you said you were still enduring punishment for something else?'

Inuyasha stared at her a moment before scowling and bringing his hands up to talk back. 'Mind your own business, bitch.'

Kagome's eyes narrowed. 'You threw me a bone Inuyasha, I can't help but wonder what you meant now. So answer me.'

'It doesn't concern you'. He folded his arms. "So forget it."

Kagome's fingers clenched into fists for a moment before she tried again. 'It concerns me! Why won't you tell me?'

"You wouldn't understand." He sighed impatiently, turning his back on her in favour of resting his arms on the windowsill beside her bed and looking out.

Kagome had run out of safe things to throw to get his attention back. For a moment she toyed with the idea of marching up to him to pursue the matter… but that probably wouldn't get them anywhere… unless she intended to make them both mad at each other again. She picked up her pen and turned in her chair to get back to her studies.

She'd just ask again later until he cracked and told her.

^_^

"If you tell anyone I'm playing this game with you, I'll bite you." Inuyasha told Kagome evenly one afternoon.

Kagome grinned and passed the cats cradle back to him. He'd made the same threat with the game of twister. That didn't mean he enjoyed himself any less. He had to pause and look up at her as he took it, just to make sure he was getting it right. She nodded and the threads slipped from her fingers onto his.

With her hands now free, Kagome popped the question. 'Come to dinner tonight?'

She took the cat's cradle back so he could answer.

'No.' was his answer.

She passed the cradle back to him hurriedly, he fumbled for a moment as she retorted angrily. 'Why not?!'

"Why should I?" He scowled, struggling to keep a grip on the threads. "It sounds like you're inviting a lover home to meet the parents. I ain't doing that."

'They won't stop asking me about my little friend,' Kagome told him with a frown. 'Please spare me any more torture and just let them see you.'

'So they can ridicule me?' he asked when the cradle was back in her hands.

Kagome shook her head quickly, shaking off the cradle to talk. 'They're not like that. They just want to know you.'

"You ruined it now…" He sighed, looking down at the tangled mess of string on the bed. "I was just getting the hang of it too…"

Kagome hooked a finger under his chin to get him to look up at her. He jerked away from the contact… it was almost a flinch. "What?!" he snapped irritably.

'Come. Please.' She gave him the most earnest and vulnerable look she could manage.

He watched her for a moment before shrugging. "Whatever."

Whatever. It was always 'whatever'. Never a 'sure' or an 'ok' or even a 'yes'. It made it sound like he didn't care… like he didn't have a choice. She didn't want him to think of it like that…

^_^

"So did you grow up here?" Mrs Higurashi asked pleasantly at the dinner table that evening.

"No." Inuyasha answered, aware that Kagome was watching him like a hawk. "I don't usually stay in one place for very long."

"How long have you been in Izu?" Kagome's mother asked as she passed the tomatoes to Souta.

"About fifty… uh…" he trailed off as he saw Kagome making throat slashing motions beside her mother. "Fifty weeks… roughly a year I guess…"

"I see." Mrs Higurashi was genuinely interested. "Where were you born then?"

"In a castle in Kai." Inuyasha happily accepted the tomatoes that had been passed from Souta. "This food's great!"

"You were… born in a castle?" The family looked perplexed.

Kagome interrupted the moment. 'His mother went into labour on the museum tour.' She explained hurriedly.

"Ah…" Mrs Higurashi nodded. "Do your parents live around here then? Maybe we'll hear of them."

"Nope. Both dead." Inuyasha shovelled down the noodles.

"How… terrible… I'm sorry I brought it up." Mrs Higurashi held a hand to her mouth in surprise.

"I think I just found a new favourite food." Inuyasha chortled on obliviously.

"I don't think it's anything recent, Mom." Souta pointed out, noticing Inuyasha's attitude.

"I suppose you live in foster homes, that's why you move around a lot?" Mrs Higurashi asked.

Inuyasha gulped down the last of his food to free up his mouth. "Nah… No one would take me in. My mother died when I was about… uh… seven I think. I got kicked out the town and out of court and then I just stayed wherever the hell I liked."

"Oh." Mrs Higurashi paused in surprise. "Didn't the authorities take you in?"

Inuyasha smirked. "They tried. Always too slow."

Kagome was unusually quiet… even for a mute person.

"So you were like a street kid?" Souta asked, obviously having idolised Inuyasha within the first three minutes. "Did you go around stealing stuff to get by and shine shoes of the gentry for a living. Like 'Shine ya boots guvna'?'"

"Something like that…" Inuyasha shrugged.

"That sounds like a rough way to grow up…" Mrs Higurashi said with a touch of sympathy. "It must have been hard."

"Don't sweat it." Inuyasha shrugged again, suddenly a little offset by the sympathetic eyes watching him.

"So you met Kagome in school?" Grandpa finally spoke up. Everyone glanced at him… "What? It's about time I got a word in."

"She never talks about you." Mrs Higurashi said, making sure Kagome's head was down eating her dinner so the girl wouldn't see what she said. "I'm surprised she still knows people from that school. She got expelled after two days."

"What can I say? She can't shake me off." Inuyasha shrugged with a sly smile.

"It's good for Kagome to have friends at a time like this. She must get very lonely. She needs company." Mrs Higurashi smiled at him. "She's lucky to have someone like you."

"Yeah…" the smile kinda slipped off his face with that. "I wouldn't say she's all that lucky to have me."

There was a chuckle from the older pair of Higurashi's. "Don't be so modest." Mrs Higurashi told him lightly. "Any friend to stick with her through all this trouble with Kagome being mute… you must be very loyal."

Kagome looked up in time to see him answer the question.

"Loyalty is my middle name."

^_^

"They were nicer than I thought they'd be." Inuyasha told Kagome that night. Kagome nodded with a happy smile. "They didn't say anything about my ears though…"

'I told them it was a birth defect.' Kagome winced slightly. 'Sorry'

"That's not completely wrong." He shrugged and sat down at the end of her bed whilst Kagome wiggled to get comfortable where she against the pillow in her pyjamas with the blankets drawn over her legs.

'I didn't know…' Kagome started uncertainly.

'Didn't know what?' he asked.

'That you grew up like a mortal.' She frowned in thought. 'I thought you'd always been a Wishbringer. I didn't know you had parents.'

"What, you think I just started existing five hundred years ago, out of thin air as I am today?" he scoffed and looked away. "All Wishbringers were mortal at one point, Kagome."

Did he just use her name? No… she must have mistaken him… but that wasn't important right then. 'What changed?'

"What?" he glanced back at her.

'If you were mortal like me then why did you become a Wishbringer?' she asked.

His gaze slid from her face to the blankets between them, his eyes tracing the patterns on the duvet. "I was never like you…"

Kagome cocked her head, silently waiting and urging him to continue. Eventually she was rewarded for her patience when he looked away again, out the darkened window, but he spoke again. "I was… am… a Hanyou. You know what that is, right?"

Kagome shook her head slightly.

"It means I'm half a Youkai. Half a monster. Half a human though… and riddled with all the weaknesses that come with being human." He smiled slightly, but it meant nothing. An empty smile. "I didn't lie when I said I was born in a castle. My mother was the daughter of a warlord… a princess in her own respect. She died of an illness when I was little, and without her influence in the castle, I was cast out."

Kagome watched him intently. She'd never even thought about him having a life beyond granting wishes… this was a whole new side.

"So." He started off loudly, looking back at her with a shrug of the shoulders, as if to cast off dark memories or thought. "In a world where you're rejected by humans, but too weak and human to be accepted by Youkai, what's a Hanyou to do? I wanted to get even with the Youkai… I was strong… though only because my father was strong and I wasn't even a quarter as strong as he was. And I wanted to be stronger. I wanted to prove that I could be a son to a real taiyoukai… as it was… I was just a bastard little Hanyou. I wanted to be legitimate I guess… so I went through all sorts to get the power I wanted."

Kagome noticed his gaze had slid back to the floor… it wasn't as if he was talking to her anymore.

"I was greedy… selfish and stupid… I found a ninth generation Wishbringer in a vase I smashed. My first wish was to have ultimate power… power that was above and beyond any mortal's or Youkai's. I wanted to be stronger than my father… stronger than my brother… and I got what I wanted." He sighed and closed his eyes. "That's my punishment. My curse. I destroyed myself with my very first wish, and ever since I've had to watch master after master destroy himself or herself the very same way I did. Either through death or some unpleasant sentence… It's my punishment to watch them destroy themselves, but know that I'm the cause. It's a reminder of my greed…"

A feather light touch against his arm caused him to snap his head around to look at Kagome. She'd shifted closer whilst he'd been lost in his thoughts. Too close.

His heart gave an unfamiliar lurch in his chest as he tried to slide backwards off the bed, but found his way blocked by the bed post. He'd seen that look before. She was sorry for him… she _pitied _him. There was something else there too, but he decided to focus instantly on the anger she inflicted with her pity. He didn't want that from her.

"Don't look at me like that!" he hissed. "If you think I'm unhappy – I'm not! I like being this way!" he forced a laugh. "I have ultimate power, power that could make Sesshomaru weep and my father proud! I have no need for pity! I've managed to kill thousands of people in an eye blink – something they could never do!" Oh dear… his breathing was becoming a little choppy and unsteady… he needed to stop thinking about their lives… or else he'd…

His masking smile and laugh faded from his lips as Kagome suddenly reached out and wrapped her arms around his torso from his side. One arm hooked around his back, the other around his chest, trapping his arm to him.

It was a strange sensation… not the hug, he'd been hugged before. That was nothing new. But it was as if something inside him was leaning toward her… leaning into the embrace like this was what it wanted. Compassion… understanding.

No. He didn't need it.

His breathing was becoming even more unsteady and his heart was beating slightly faster than normal. He looked down at the dark head resting against his right shoulder.

He shouldn't have told her.

With a sudden movement he broke roughly out of her arms and stood up, trying to get his breathing under control and stop the slightly dizzy feeling he felt from rattling up the inner self that had been leaning into Kagome. He rolled his shoulders and looked back at her to find her watching him cautiously. "Listen. Ten weeks will be up when dawn breaks tomorrow. You'll have your hearing back and your voice too."

It didn't seem to make her look any more joyful. She still looked at him like she was sorry…

"Stop it…" he growled. "I don't need this…" he turned and dissipated… relocating himself elsewhere. He couldn't stand being in that room anymore, the silence had been too tense for even him.

He found himself standing on top of the oil tank in the middle of the dark. Above him Kagome's room still cast an orange square of light on the ground before him. But after a few minutes it disappeared… Kagome had gone to bed.

"It doesn't matter." He said aloud to the quiet night. Only the crickets chirped back. "They're dead… even I can't bring them back to life."

He stepped off the tank to land on the ground six feet below… gracefully and without a hitch… or that had been the plan. But his sleeve got caught on the flower trellis around the tank and he heard a loud ripping sound.

"Clumsy bastard…" he jerked his haori off and examined the sleeve. It may have been as relatively strong as poor quality armour, but it was aged and worn out… the nicks and tears were beginning to show. "I'm too old…" he told the night before snorting. "I wish…"

For a moment he paused, the coat dropped in his hand to his side as he leaned back thoughtfully against the oil tank and the trellis. If he could go back in time and make a different wish… what would he wish for if not for ultimate power?

He smirked to himself. He'd wish for a barrel of sake that never ran dry. A plate of food that refilled itself whenever it was empty. That's what he should have asked for…

And that brat, Kagome, had had to remind him all over again. He scowled suddenly and pulled the dark haori over his hair the way little girls put pillow cases over their heads and pretended to be a bride. He pretended to be Kagome. "Oh you poor thing, being made immortal! Given powers that would gods jealous! Being able to outlive your pathetic brother and laugh at his grave! How awful it must be for you!" A perfect imitation of her voice.

He threw the haori on the ground angrily and kicked the trellis, making it quiver violently. "Stupid wench… always looking at the glass half empty!"

He was anything but unhappy. Yep. He was perfectly happy. He knew that in a month or so, when Kagome made her last wish he'd go back into storage and the next time he opened his eyes, years would have flickered by for him. What strange new things would he see in the next future? He'd be able to look back at Kagome and see a wrinkly old woman and be grateful that he never aged the way she would. He was lucky… yeah…

Yeah right.

If he was so happy and guilt free… then why had he wanted to stay and accept her embrace?

Something tickled at the edges of his senses and he looked up and around him uncertainly. He couldn't recognise it… but it felt familiar. But just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

Probably just a bat and its sonar…

He ambled off to find something else to do, seeing as everyone had gone to bed now. He went and threw sticks in the river, but he couldn't see very well through the dark so he quickly lost interest.

It wasn't long before he found himself sitting on the wall beside the driveway gates of the old house. He leaned against the heavy set post beside him and gazed at the ground four or five feet below him.

Then it was back, the tickling sixth sense that flitted around the back of his awareness. He scowled a moment, trying to understand and locate it, before the presence made itself known to his fifth sense. His hearing.

He looked up the road, frowning heavily as he heard the footsteps approaching. They were irregular and clumsy. He knew that gait.

His frown lifted off his face and stopped leaning on the gate in favour of resting his elbows on his knees, a slow smirk playing on his lips. It was a few minutes before the new arrival stepped into his line of sight.

Nothing was said for quite a while.

"So you're still alive." Inuyasha lifted his chin slightly.

"A stupid observation."

Inuyasha shrugged lightly. "It's what you wanted. Immortal life. You have it."

"You tricked me."

"Mm…" Inuyasha smirk widened. "Perhaps."

"I only used six of my wishes. I'm entitled to my last four."

"I don't disagree." Inuyasha cocked his head to the side. "I'd use them on yourself if I were you, you're a mess."

"Thank the lord you're not me. Now come. We have business."

"_I _have business here." Inuyasha interrupted.

"You're priority is to your last master. Now come with me or I'll make you regret it."

The smile slipped off Inuyasha's face and he let himself slip to the ground. "As you wish."

AN: And great, thanks to Saro mentioning the Princess Bride, I keep having flashbacks myself ^_^ But I assure you Inuyasha is not saying 'I love you' when he says "As you wish".


	8. Where Your Loyalties Lie

AN: I'm sad to say that unfortunately, Miroku, Sango and Shippo won't be appearing in this fic. I miss them already, but I can't work them into the plot. Maybe next time. (though everyone seemed to think that maybe Miroku was Inuyasha's master (?!) It could be Kaede – no one thought of that one… anyway, you'll find out in a minute or two who it really is.)

And did you know that Inuyasha's clothes (in the manga and anime) are derived from the festive clothes worn by Shrine priests? Something called the Kariginu. I only found that out yesterday (God bless the Inuyasha art book!).

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 8

Where Your Loyalties Lie

It looked like the weather was finally beginning to change, because when Kagome opened her eyes the next morning the light streaming through the dusty old window was bright and blinding. She covered her eyes with her hands as she quickly tried to adjust to the bright light. When she was safe she dropped her hands and smiled mildly to see that there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was such a blue sky that it could make the Thomas the Tank Engine skies jealous.

The birds were enjoying it as well by the sound of it. They were twittering excitedly in the tree outside her window, their small bodies flitting from one branch to another in the morning chorus.

It was probably their racket which had woken her up.

Hang on…

Kagome stiffened in her bed, listening intently. Bird song? The small crystal sweet notes were muffled slightly by the closed window, but she could still hear them. A surge of excitement launched her out of bed in seconds – the squeak of rusty old bed springs complained beneath her and the blankets rustled as she threw them back. Downstairs she could hear Souta talking to someone loudly over the phone and the sound of banging pots and pans as her mother prepared breakfast.

She scrambled over to the window and threw it open, the bird song hitting her full in the face for the first time in over two months. "I missed you guys!" she told them, her voice sounding odd to her own hears and scratchy and brittle as if she hadn't used it in a while. Which she hadn't, obviously. Immense relief and joy welled up inside her and she took a deep breath and released it in the best way she could.

She screamed at the top of her lungs.

The little birds in the tree stopped singing at once and scattered every which way and Kagome broke off her scream, laughing. She shouldn't have been taken by surprise like this – after all she'd been counting down the weeks and Inuyasha had told her the night before that her senses would return the next morning. Of course, she hadn't really been paying much attention to such trivial matters last night.

"Inuyasha?" she turned back into her room and looked around. "Hello? Inuyasha I want to talk to you! I actually _can _talk to you!"

The room remained empty and quiet. Kagome's smile faded only slightly as she began to wonder where he was. She'd never had to really ask for him to come to her – every time she thought she needed him, he'd always just popped into view. She'd never really had to even think about asking him over… he'd always be there.

"Inuyasha?" she called, a little louder this time. "Where are you? I thought you were supposed to come when I called you?"

Like a dog in that way. But a little disobedient dog right then, because he wasn't materialising before her.

She paused a moment, frowning in concern, before quickly forgetting her confusion as she remembered she could hear and talk again! "Yes!" she crowed as she leapt down off the bed and stomped her feet repeatedly on the floor. "About bloody time!"

She set about getting dressed in the noisiest way she could manage. Slamming the doors of her wardrobe and snapping the drawers back into place as she retrieved her clothes, savouring the sound of each echoing bang. She could get used to this.

She hummed happily as skipped along her way to the bathroom and even more happily washed her hands for nearly ten minutes, not being able to get enough of splashing her hands in the soapy water. She swore and vowed that she'd never take her hearing for granting again, and she'd never take the gift of gabble for granted either!

When she went downstairs and greeted her family, screams of happiness, not unlike her own, went off.

"You can talk! You can hear us?!" Mrs Higurashi hugged her daughter happily.

"Ugh… tighter Mom, I think I still have a little oxygen left in my lungs…" Kagome gasped against her mother's surprisingly strong embrace. Mrs Higurashi pulled back and kissed her on the forehead. "It's a miracle! It must be!"

It was Souta's turn next as he hugged his older sister around the middle. "I knew it! I knew you were faking it all a long!"

Kagome laughed and tweaked his ear teasingly. "Yeah, just to annoy the heck out of you guys."

Grandpa patted his daughter on the shoulder. "I told you my charms against evil would come in handy one of these days. I had a feeling the evil presence in this house left last night."

Kagome set Souta aside to give him a great big hug. "What would I do without you Grandpa?" She pulled back and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Talking of an evil presence – has anyone seen Inuyasha around?"

"Inuyasha, your friend?" Mrs Higurashi smiled as she shrugged. "Should we have seen him?"

"Well… he usually hangs around…" Kagome sobered slightly as she glanced at her mother. "I expected to see him this morning…"

"I'm sure he'll be thrilled to find you can talk again." Mrs Higurashi told her. "What a nice young man. So polite. And really complimentary about my cooking."

"Right…" Kagome laughed and shook her head. Praise for Inuyasha? Hah… at least some kind of miracle had occurred.

But as the day wore on, Kagome was starting to get slightly worried about Inuyasha's lack of appearance. She went up to her room numerous times, because that was the place she usually bumped into him… but he never showed up. She called his name a few times and even made a risky gamble at one point.

"Inuyasha… at the risk of sounding like a postcard… I wish you were here… now…" She tapped her fingers nervously together and looked around cautiously, wondering if it was such a good idea to throw away a sixth wish like that. But nothing happened, no one appeared and she was alone as ever. She felt a little sad… had he run away? Was that possible? Was he angry at her for what happened last night. He'd pushed her off him and disappeared. Had she offended him by offering to comfort him… he was a proud kind of person… he didn't want compassion offered like he was some kind of weakling – she understood that. But was he still angry and upset at her? Was that why he was avoiding her today?

Or had something worse happened?

Great… now she was actually beginning to miss the gas bag. With a sigh she went back downstairs to go watch some Tv (without subtitles this time!) and finally settled on some boring game show that made lots of noise and had lots of people cheering in the background to keep her ears entertained. But at some point she lost track of what she was watching in favour of wondering where Inuyasha was… and what he was doing right then…

"Hey Kagome!"

She blinked back to the present and sat up as Souta came running into the living room holding what she thought for a moment was some scrap cloth in his hands. "What is it?" she asked as he reached her side.

"Ain't this the dog-boy's?" he held up the cloth in his hands and Kagome's breath caught in her throat.

She quickly snatched the coat from Souta and held it up higher to scrutinise it. It was Inuyasha's alright… that dark red haori that was so old and battered that it now looked closer to brown. But what worried her most was the long rip that had practically torn the coat from the sleeve, all the way across the back, to the other sleeve. What on earth had he done to this coat… or what on earth had something else done to _him_?

"Where did you find this?" she asked Souta without looking up at him.

"By the oil tank outside." Souta told her. "He must have left it last night. What do you think happened to it?"

"It got torn." Kagome said flatly.

"Well, we're all glad to see your using speech to its full potential." Souta rolled his eyes and started to leave. "Maybe now you can buy him some new clothes as a present. He might like you even more."

Kagome didn't really register what he said as she fingered the rough material of his haori… this meant something was very wrong. Inuyasha wouldn't just disappear and leave his ratty old coat lying around… if he'd left he would have taken it with him.

So what if _someone _or _something _had taken him instead. Kagome's hands stiffened and clenched the haori close to her chest as she contemplated. All sorts of scenarios and situations ran through her head. Most of them involved government spies and officials and sometimes helicopters…

What if the government had captured him and were now dissecting him piece by piece, ear by ear, to discover what he was and how he did the things he did.

"Oh…" Kagome whimpered slightly and brought her hands to her mouth, forgetting she still held the haori in her hands. The result was that she got a very strong whiff of his clothes. She blinked and looked down in surprise as she took another sniff. "Wow… he smells like…" she sniffed his collar again to be sure. Yep, there was a very subtle humid smell… the way the damp air of the forest smelled in the morning in warm weather. Of course… that could be because the coat had been lying outside all morning and the weather was very humid today… but she'd vaguely noticed the similar smell last night when she'd put her arms around him and found her nose touching his sleeve.

Kagome's face heated up slightly. Wonderful. It was bad enough to appreciate his appearance, it was one step worse to start appreciating his personal smell. But it was so… so _drinkable_… she held the material up to her nose and inhaled deeply. Over the past two months, with her hearing blocked and her voice useless, she was certain that other senses had become more acute. Like her sense of smell for instance… 

If she closed her eyes she could just imagine herself in a forest, dampness present in the air after a storm and some musky scent of masculinity that seemed mixed in with the sweet smell of the forest.

And oh dear god she was turning into a pervert. She hastily dropped the haori onto her lap and looked around to check no one had seen her antics. She was lucky this time… because usually Inuyasha had the annoying habit of popping up when she least needed him, usually at a time like this.

Kagome sighed and shook her head. "Next I'll be rummaging through his underwear drawers and sniffing the contents…" she told herself irritably as she folded the haori on her lap and ran a finger along the very prominent rip. Maybe he'd accidentally ripped it on a tree branch or something and had been so upset that he ran away crying.

She really hoped that was the real explanation for his disappearance… even though she knew how unlikely it was that Inuyasha would cry. But it was better than the more logical explanation that he was angry at her and was refusing to see her. How long could Inuyasha hold a grudge?

She'd have to wait and see.

^_^

"Well this seems an awfully cheerful place…" Inuyasha said flatly as he looked around. "In a maniacally depressing sort of way."

"Shut your mouth." His master tottered precariously to sit down on a worn out armchair.

Inuyasha cast him a dirty look and levered himself up to sit on what looked like it had once been a washing machine, but was now more like a rusty grey box. In fact the whole house was just one room filled with all kinds of junk and crap that looked like it had fallen off the back of garbage lorry. He wrinkled his nose and distaste as he leant back against the wall. "And the smells just keep getting better and better…" he sighed and rolled his eyes towards his master. "You ok? You look like you're about to drop dead." He laughed a little cruelly after saying that.

"Didn't I tell you to shut your fucking trap?" A beer bottle sailed Inuyasha's way. Though he didn't even need to bother ducking or moving to avoid getting hit. The bottle smashed a few feet from his head against the wall and Inuyasha's smirk widened and he whistled. "Well. Your aims a lot worse than it used to be."

"Happens when your body starts betraying you like it has for me…"

"My heart bleeds for you." Inuyasha drummed his fingers against the washing machine he was sat on. "And so on a lighter note, what do you want me to do about it? Fix you up I suppose…"

"Hardly. You'll probably twist the wish and make it worse." His master's breathing was heavy and laboured.

Inuyasha's smirk faded to something more towards pity. "You poor bastard… how about you wish for me to kill you. Trust me, I think it'll be for mercy."

"You'd just love that wouldn't you."

Inuyasha just shrugged and averted his gaze.

"I was a fool… wishing for immortal life. Yes… that's what I got… but I still aged didn't I? I've been shot six times in the chest and I should be dead… and blood still pours into my lungs everyday… but I never die. I've been run over twice and my legs have been shattered three times. I heal… but never completely. I should be dead… but that will never happen."

"Onigumo…" Inuyasha hopped down from the washing machine and approached the arm chair. "If that upsets you so much, why don't you wish for some anti-wrinkle cream? But you'll be doing us all a favour if you just let me end it for you."

A harsh laugh ripped from his master's throat, Inuyasha raised an eyebrow when he noticed a few blood splatters. "You! You're just out for revenge against me because of Kikyo. You can try and hide behind a genial mask of pretending to not care – but you just want to kill me because-"

"**_SHUT UP!_**" Inuyasha lashed out at him heavily, hitting his old crippled master around the jaw and sending him and the chair sprawling backwards. But the moment his fist connected, a horrible bolt of what felt like electricity shot threw him and made Inuyasha double up in agony. He gasped and drew away from the fallen chair and Onigumo as spasms wracked his muscles and felt an odd burning sensation on the flesh of his right arm… the arm which had punched Onigumo. "D-Dammit…"

The pain gradually faded until he could straighten again. He tentatively touched his burnt arm and picked at the singed holes in his shirt sleeve. He looked up when he heard Onigumo beginning to laugh.

"Did you forget?" Onigumo slowly picked himself up off the floor, shoulders hunched and gnarled hands gripping the edge of a nearby table. "My second wish. Anyone who intends me harm to get a nasty surprise…"

"I never forget a wish." Inuyasha clenched his right fist, willing away the soft searing pain that still ran through it.

"Maybe you should think twice about striking a master." Onigumo jerked his chin towards the chair. "Put it back."

Inuyasha clenched his jaw tightly and used his foot to kick the arm chair back to an upright position. "Happy?" he snapped.

"Ecstatic." Onigumo sat back down with a weary sigh, but a sneer still playing on his thin chapped lips. "Though… it's probably my fault. I shouldn't tease you about Kikyo. You were always overly protective of her. I suppose your still overly protective to her memory as well."

Inuyasha forced his temper back down and shrugged as he turned away. He wasn't going to let the asshole get to him.

"Now… I found you for a reason…" Onigumo started evenly. "I want my last four wishes granted."

"Whatever." Inuyasha turned back to him. "You probably need them. So just get on with it."

"For my sixth wish… I want Kikyo… bring her back to life and bring her to me." Onigumo rasped.

Inuyasha stared at him a moment before laughing. "You're more of a fool than I thought. Your head is just something you keep your hat on isn't it? You have four glorious wishes at your fingers – you could regain your youth and your health and you wish for a dead girl to walk again? And then what? She wouldn't look twice at a shot up twat like you. Besides, I can't bring dead girls back to life. Or did you forget that rule? It's been fifty years after all."

"You speak with too much cheek to your master."

"You're not even worthy to be a master." Inuyasha told him snappishly. "The only reason you ever got involved was because of your lust for Kikyo. She wished to find love – and she found your love! She despised you but you couldn't keep nasty little thoughts about her out of your head. And when you discovered me, you stole my container and by fluke gained ten wishes for yourself."

"I _do _remember you know…"

"You were pathetic. You blew five wishes on petty things, like being able to evade the police. Getting revenge on old pals. Shooting people with bolts of energy if they ever touched you with malicious intent. And then you finally got some sense and used your sixth wish to make Kikyo yours."

"A wish that never came to pass." Onigumo narrowed his dull hooded eyes. "I was cheated."

"Only because she made her sixth wish the very same day… to die a happy woman. She would rather have died than submit herself to you." Inuyasha clenched his fists. "You were sick… it was a miracle I never came across you again after that…"

"Until now."

"Believe me, I'm not happy about it." Inuyasha touched his injured arm tentatively.

"Well… if you can't bring Kikyo to me then I wish for you to bring me her replica. Bring me the girl who looks the most like Kikyo… she was a very beautiful woman… a cold kind of beauty… I want to see her face one last time." Onigumo grinned to himself.

"And what would you do with her?" Inuyasha scowled, feeling the fine hair at the back of his neck bristle anxiously.

Onigumo laughed. "That's for me to know and you to find out."

"Sick pervert…"

"Now grant it." Onigumo told him sharply/

Inuyasha took a deep breath and lowered his gaze to the ground. "As you wish." He dissipated to begin his search. He already knew of one girl who could match Kikyo's description to a T… but there was no way in hell that he would hand her over to Onigumo.

There was a girl in Tokyo, Taito to be exact. She was at the check out in a supermarket. He must have scared the hell out of her when he materialised behind her and grabbed her shoulder to turn her around. She gave a sharp cry and the shoppers around them, having witnessed his sudden appearance also cried in alarm. Inuyasha scrutinised her face a moment before releasing her and dissipating again. A close match… but so far Kagome was still more similar in appearance… he had to keep looking…

A girl in the swimming baths in Nerima was the next suspect. Actually, more of a woman than a girl. She screamed and attempted to slap him when he dragged her out of the water to see her face. He knocked her hand down and scowled at her. Too old. There were lines of her face already – Kagome was still the most prominent candidate.

He dissipated again and tried elsewhere. A girl in Hino… but she was too young. Maybe in five years or so she'd look like Kikyo, but she was only eleven. He tried somewhere else.

He found six girls in total over the whole country, all similar in appearance to Kikyo, or similar in the shape of their body… but none were as bang on as Kagome. But now he'd reached the end… there were no more girls who looked like Kikyo. He searched desperately but found no one. He extended his search to nearby countries, but found even less girls that looked like her in those. In sheer desperation he pushed the search further, extending his reach across the face of the earth and back again.

One girl in a place named Russia looked like her… or more like a gaijin version of Kikyo… but she was foreign and even less suitable.

There was no one. He could find_ not one _girl who looked more like Kikyo than Kagome did. Maybe if Kagome had a beauty spot on her face, he could have picked the girl in the supermarket… but there was no use.

He had no choice.

He materialised outside the old house and looked up to Kagome's window to make sure she was alone before relocating himself behind her desk. She was sitting at the wooden structure, studying some new subject he didn't recognise. He resolved his conscience and moved forward ever so quietly, reaching out to touch a sleeping point… she didn't need to be awake for this.

But seconds before his fingers got within reach she turned, about to fetch a new book, but cried out and jumped when she saw him standing there. "Inuyasha!" she seemed a little surprised to see him. More surprised than normal. But she quickly got over it and pointed to her throat. "See – I can talk! And my hearing's back! And where were you all day – I was worried sick about you, especially when I found your ripped coat outside… well actually Souta found it, not me, but it was found, that's all you need to know. I was worried you might have been hurt and…" her gaze slid from his face down his right arm and her eyes widened. "Oh god – you're covered in burns – what the hell happened! Did you try to cook yourself?!"

Oh yes, her voice was definitely back, unluckily for those around her. He sighed and moved himself out of her reach when she attempted to touch him. She turned doubtful at this action and looked back up at his face. "You're not still… mad are you… for what happened last night?" she asked hesitantly.

He lowered his head and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"What for? For disappearing? For being gone a whole day… and… uh… what do you think you're-"

He pressed against a point behind her shoulder, close to where her shoulder blade ended near her neck. She gave a startled jolt as a new sensation evidently shot through her, before her lids slid closed and she pitch forward. He caught her carefully with his uninjured arm and her weight forced him to the ground on his knees, her body draped across his lap and over his arm. For a moment he stared at the back of her head, trying to find a loophole in Onigumo's wish. He tried to find another way to interpret the wish… but Onigumo had long ago figured the trick to making wishes. First you explained exactly what you wanted in your wish. And then you basically said 'wish for all the aforementioned stuff' and you got more or less exactly what you wanted. Onigumo wanted Kagome… and Inuyasha was powerless to prevent that.

He was stalling… delaying the completion of a wish he really didn't want to grant. But it was like a machine trying to override its own programming… it just couldn't be done. He had to take Kagome back to Onigumo. End of the matter.

Though he hated that Onigumo was about to destroy another girl's life with his base desires and wishes.

"I'm sorry." He whispered again and stood, dragging up over his shoulder as he did so and dissipated with her.

The bedroom melted away and he found himself standing in Onigumo's dingy little hut, Onigumo was still sat in his armchair. His master was looking at the watch on his wrist. "Point five seconds. You're getting slow…"

Inuyasha didn't dare release Kagome.

"Well. Let me see her face." Onigumo ordered.

Inuyasha clutched Kagome tightly to him for a moment before he lowered her slight frame from his shoulder and turned her so she faced Onigumo, her head lolling to the side.

"A near perfect match I think. Though not exact…"

"I assure you… there is no woman in the world who looks exactly like Kikyo." Inuyasha carefully placed Kagome on the floor, sitting her back against the washing machine by the wall. "I looked. I made sure. Though it's been fifty years and my memory of her is a little fuzzy."

"Bull."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and checked Kagome was still asleep. He didn't want her to witness this atrocity that was Onigumo. He finally straightened and turned on the old man. "Now make a wish that makes sense. Wish for eternal youth."

"If I do that you will make me a baby for eternity."

Inuyasha smiled secretively. "You know me too well."

"But you have a point…" Onigumo rose shakily from his chair. "When that girl wakes she'll be repulsed by me. I'm old and frail… she'll make all and any attempts to get away from me in this condition. And with my knackered body I wouldn't be able to stop her."

"Oh… stop it, you'll make me cry." Inuyasha pretended to sniff.

"Restore me to my prime. Make my body fit and healthy again… restore my youth and heal my injuries. That is what I wish." Onigumo told him.

"So you do have a brain in there, however shrivelled and useless like the rest of you." Inuyasha shifted his weight and folded his arms. "As you wish, master."

Inuyasha didn't bother watching as he turned his back on Onigumo and watched Kagome's peaceful face instead. Behind him he heard muffled grunts and gasps of pain. Inuyasha kept his expression blank and schooled as he turned his gaze down on the stained concrete floor before him and beside Kagome. There was nothing pretty about regressing in age. And there was nothing pleasant sounding about healing bones that cracked and shattered to rearrange themselves and then heal again.

It was nothing Onigumo didn't deserve. Inuyasha just sat there for a nearly full ten minutes staring at the floor whilst listening to the sounds of a man losing fifty odd years off his life. He glanced quickly to Kagome when he heard her sigh inaudibly and wrinkle her brow as she began to stir. He clenched his fists and prayed she didn't wake any time soon.

"Aren't you done yet, bastard?" Inuyasha snapped, glancing angrily over his shoulder. "You're taking a long time!"

He pushed himself to his feet and moved over to where Onigumo lay sprawled on his stomach. "Though with all those injuries to fix… no wonder. Didn't you bother taking care of yourself for those fifty years?"

A hand shot out, making a grab for his ankle but Inuyasha quickly spun away to a safe distance and looked back down. "Ah… you can move I see."

"Bastard…" Onigumo began to rise unsteadily. "You did that on purpose."

"I'll tell you what I tell everyone I meet." Inuyasha scoffed. "Not my fault."

"I'll destroy you…" Onigumo raised himself up off the floor and stood up straight, glaring down at Inuyasha angrily. Inuyasha glared back just as fiercely.

"Damn, I forgot how butt ugly you were back then too."

Onigumo's hand lashed out to strike Inuyasha, but the boy ducked and dissipated, reappearing in a crouch on top of the washing machine above Kagome who still stirred gently. "Don't abuse the delivery boy or you get no more pizzas." Inuyasha hissed angrily.

Onigumo chuckled darkly. "I suppose… I'll be saving my last wish to wipe you from existence then." He squatted down with the new-found ease of a younger body, and gently stroked a hand down Kagome's face. "With you dead I'll enjoy this girl for myself."

Inuyasha glared daggers at him.

"But I have a more pressing wish I need granting." He stood and looked Inuyasha in the eye. "I want ultimate power. Power that could equal a hundred demons like you. That's what I want."

"Oh, really?" a sudden grin spread across his face. "You want to be as powerful as me then." That could easily be arranged.

"Except," Onigumo held up a finger wisely. "I do not wish to become a Wishbringer like you. I'm not stupid."

"Fuck…" Inuyasha cursed angrily. He'd surpassed the one loophole that Inuyasha had been dying to use on him…

"So give me the power. Now. That is what I wish." Onigumo smiled slowly.

Inuyasha flashed an angry glare from Kagome to Onigumo. "You want ultimate power? Power that could equal a hundred demons. Well that's what you get."

"Say the magic words, Inu." His master taunted him.

Inuyasha gave a nasty little grin. "As you wish." 

He was going to enjoy this…

AN: Yes, I seem to have noticed a small trend that I always end the chapters the same way. Uh… I'll probably start getting superstitious soon and make them all end that way. Dammit…


	9. Laundry and Aloe Vera

AN: Ok, don't worry, I've still got plenty of explanations up my sleeve about Kikyo, Onigumo and how wishes are granted, so please don't try and accuse me of making plot holes – because I'm still trying to set up the scenario whilst introducing the main plot. But relax people, I'll be explaining very shortly (in the next chapter or so).

On a happier note: I'm finally making a move on the other stories… though I don't know when I'll update. Oh well ^_^ Some time soon I hope!

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 9

Laundry and Aloe Vera

AN: You can tell I had trouble thinking of a title, right…?

"As you wish." 

Onigumo's chin tilted slightly up as he noticed the rather sinister smirk that had spread across Inuyasha's lips. "What are you so happy about? I've overcome the loophole you wanted to spring on me."

"So you can't become a Wishbringer." Inuyasha continued to look slightly smug. "However. You didn't _not _ask to have something worse than eternal slavery…"

"Slavery. Is that what you kids are calling it these days." Onigumo commented dryly.

"You want power like me… a Hanyou…" he cocked his head slightly, still with a sneer. "Well I guess that says it all, so I'll be on my way." Without a backward glance Inuyasha turned and stooped to pick the gently rousing Kagome up in his arms.

Onigumo started towards him angrily. "Where do you think you're going?!"

But he suddenly started to slow his stride as every window in the small ramshackle building cracked open simultaneously with a loud bang that made him jump. Inuyasha didn't even bat an eye lid. The door whipped open a few moments later, ricocheting against the wall. Onigumo jumped again to face the door. Inuyasha still didn't flinch, but carried on watching Onigumo closely.

"What the hell's this?" Onigumo muttered, an angry expression passing over his face, but the anxiety was clear in his voice.

Inuyasha turned wordlessly and walked out through the open door, Kagome's right hand hitting the frame lightly as he passed through the doorway. She mumbled something grumpily and drew her hand up to her chest. Onigumo scowled again. "Where the hell do you think you're going, asshole?!" he stormed forward angrily, intending to follow them out the door – if it hadn't snapped shut before he could reach it.

Outside Inuyasha stopped at the roadside and set Kagome down at the edge of the tarmac, behind him he heard the furious rattling of the doorknob as Onigumo tried to open the door. After a few moments it stopped – then the door started jumping in its frame as the hut's occupant began throwing his weight against it. Inuyasha watched passively. No force in the world could break that door down now.

The wind was beginning to pick up. Faint whispers of breeze that had been rustling through the heights of the trees transformed into strong gusts. The trees themselves no longer gently swayed, but started to bend and thrash. Irritably, Inuyasha pushed his wild hair out of his face as it started to whip around his throat and obscure his vision.

Storm clouds were brewing overhead, and the discreet wail of the wind was overwhelmed by the deep rumbling of thunder in the distance. Kagome began to stir again as small splatters of rain began hitting her face.

Meanwhile, Inuyasha was getting impatient. "It shouldn't be taking this long…"

But no sooner had he voiced his complaint, than the heavens above him split and throngs upon throngs of demons began pouring through the gap in the clouds. A small smile touched upon Inuyasha as he heard Onigumo renew his efforts to break down the door with more vigour. The demons were getting closer… there had to be hundreds, if not thousands of them.

He hadn't been counting on so many, but the more the merrier.

Inuyasha sent Kagome a cautious glance, but found she was still only gently stirring, lost in her dreams. That was good, if she saw all this she'd probably freak out in a major way.

The distance was closing, the demons were getting closer, charging at Inuyasha at full tilt. Claws, fangs, wild eyes and hideous hides all seemed to blur together like a swarm of descending bees. The gap was turning to mere metres between them, and the demons in the front lines began widening their mouths and spread their arms, baring any weapon they had as they prepared to attack.

Until Inuyasha held up his hand. And they all stopped.

A deadly silence descended on the vicinity. "Don't worry… I'm not going to wipe you all out, it's not my orders." Inuyasha lowered his hand and folded his arms grouchily. "I'm here to deliver you some food… and a new vessel."

The silence continued.

"So you're all that's left of the Youkai population…" He sighed and tutted, before jerked a glance towards the hut that was still emitting furious shouts of an enraged Onigumo. "Pig out. The evil within his soul will be very tasty, I assure you."

The path of the demons suddenly veered off to the side, hurtling towards the hut.

His job done, Inuyasha bent and scooped up Kagome in his arms, not quite bridal style since her arms hung down limply and he held her at the knees and under the arms – not the tender position of the thighs and waist.

He didn't look back as he started off down the road, moving at a full tilt run across the warm tarmac of the empty road, heading for Kagome's old manor house. Behind him he heard the sound of the hut being torn apart and obliterated as the demons descended on it. He heard the screams of Onigumo as he was consumed. But he didn't feel guilty… of all the people who had died because of him – this was the first man to deserve his death.

They'd consume him, their power would merge and Onigumo would be lost within it all. He'd be one thread in a tapestry of one Youkai. A human lost in power over his head. He wouldn't be making any more wishes… he was effectively dead – though his wish for eternal immortality wouldn't be broken… after all, he was still technically alive as well.

"Inu…yasha…"

He snapped his gaze back to the girl in her arms. Her eyes were opening but she still seemed muggy and out of it.

"What happened?" she raised her hand to rub her eyes. "Where are we…?"

"Uh… you see… the thing is…" he fumbled clumsily for her sleeping point. He tapped it and she cried out in pain.

"Ow!" she punched him angrily in the shoulder. "That hurt you git!"

Desperately he tapped it again.

"Hey!!" she screamed, fully awake now despite his efforts. "Put me down this instant!"

Ok… so maybe the sleeping point only worked once. Obediently he sighed and put her down, well aware that they were far out of range of Onigumo's little hut… or whatever was left of it by now. Kagome drew back from him, rubbing her neck and glaring at him suspiciously. "What the hell are you trying to do? Kidnap me?!"

"No." he rolled his eyes and moved past her, heading along his path again. Kagome followed him with her eyes.

"Inuyasha what-"

"Please don't ask me." He said wearily.

Kagome stared at his retreating form, absently shivering at an uneasy feeling on the breeze… there was something not quite right about this place… "Is that your explanation for knocking me out and taking me to… wherever we are?"

"I don't want to explain to you." He said flatly, still with his back to her. "It's a Wishbringer thing… but it's ok now. It's over."

"Uh… ok…" What was over? She wondered, but she'd never seen Inuyasha so… so reserved like he had been lately. Her arm skimmed his form warily, before falling on his arm again. "You're hurt!"

"Yeah… you said that before," he stopped and looked down at his arm in mild surprise as she trotted up to him and took hold of his right hand gingerly. "Don't worry, it's only a burn."

She lightly touched a finger against the burn holes in his sleeve, or what was left of it. "Looks like someone turned a flame thrower on you."

"It's ok," he pulled his arm away from her and started walking again.

"Don't you magically heal instantly, or something? I thought you were a Wishbringer?" she ran to catch up to him and walk alongside him.

"I told you. If a Wishbringer attempts to use power on himself through a wish or without a wish, I'll end up killing myself." He flexed his blistered fingers with an indifferent shrug. "Still… a Hanyou's power of healing is not to be laughed at. It'll heal by itself in time."

"You'll be covered in scars."

"Nah!" he wrinkled his nose with a grin. "And if I do – chicks dig scars!"

Kagome rolled her eyes and pushed him playfully on the arm. He cried out and nearly fell over.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow… WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!" he ranted.

"You big baby!" she graced him with a strange look. "I thought you were too macho to feel pain!"

He instantly straightened. "I am. What are you on about?"

She moved around and grabbed his sleeve of the other arm. "Come on – we need to get back and treat your wounds."

^_^

"You need to take better care of yourself." She told him whilst patting the kitchen table as she moved past it towards the medical drawer. "Sit here."

"But-"

"That was an order, not a request." She told him coolly as she rummaged around for the white box where they kept all their supplies. Behind her, Inuyasha huffed in annoyance and drew himself to perch on the edge of the table. "And take off the shirt, I need to reach your wounds." She ordered over her shoulder. Another sigh and a rustle of material followed before she turned with a smile and a box in her hands.

"It's amazing that the almighty Wishbringer can't even heal his own…"

The smile slid tragically off her face when she realised what was now sitting on the table.

She'd thought haori-less Inuyasha had been bad. Try completely topless Inuyasha. Her hands were beginning to tremble so badly the contents of the box were rattling. Inuyasha gave her an odd look. "What? You look like you've seen a ghost." He told her.

There was nothing incredibly hot about his pose. He was swinging his legs casually and was bent forward slightly with his good hand resting against his knee – his face oblivious and clueless as to how he was affecting her. Kagome fumbled a smile back onto her face and forced herself to approach him, her steps just as shaky as her hands. Inuyasha still watched her uncertainly, probably trying to figure out what the matter was.

"A-arm out." She squeaked as she set the box down. He straightened co-operatively and pushed his hair back over his shoulder as he held out his right arm. It only helped in exposing more of himself to her, and showed off the perfectly toned muscles all the way from his chest, through his shoulder, to his arm in question. They flexed slightly as he idly clenched and unclenched his fingers. All those muscles working… just to clench his fist…

Kagome kept her eyes schooled on his arm and the supplies in her hands, the smile on her face was becoming a pasted on mask as she wailed in despair beneath it. He was a sin! It just wasn't fair for one person to hold so much masculine beauty… she was going to melt in a minute…

Still! He was still a jerk! He had laughed at her disability and he'd violently beaten up two dozen boys at school! He was a ruffian and a total blockhead! The axe was still a more attractive option to take on a date… she still disliked Inuyasha. He was a jerk. A hot one. But a jerk nonetheless.

This little rant helped a little bit to control herself. She repeated it constantly in a chanting though. _He's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk-_

"What's that stuff?" Inuyasha asked, still the brainless wonder, not having noticed the reason why her cheeks were so pink. 

"It's cream. For your burns. Promotes healing." She said in simple clipped words for an explanation. Her eyes remained fixed on the little tub in her hands as she unscrewed the lid and dolloped a big glob of the cream into her hand. "Hold out your arm," she told him again, seeing as it had lowered slightly after a few minutes.

When she deposited the cream on his arm he hissed and flinched, almost drawing his arm back instinctively. Kagome froze her actions. "Does it hurt?"

"Stings is all…" he shook his head, signalling he was ok. "It's cold."

"It'll soothe the burns too." She warned as she lightly used her fingers to spread the cream across his burnt and tender flesh, mindful that it was probably like rubbing a sunburn. Painful as hell. "Just give it a minute… it'll feel better in a sec…" her fingers skimmed up past his elbow to spread the cream along his forearm. A few moments later and she felt him relax under her ministrations as she applied the soother, she grew bolder and less timid and applied more cream, using her whole hand to smooth the cream across his arm.

"It smells nice…" Inuyasha commented absently, earning a smile from Kagome.

This was actually becoming rather pleasant. Kagome found herself becoming entranced in her own actions, smoothing her hand up and down the arm, regardless that the skin was red, blotchy and blistered in some places. She spent a few minutes using both hands to cover his afflicted hand in the cream, running her fingers over his gently and sliding her slick hands over his palm. She was acutely aware of how big his hand was compared to her own.

Unnecessarily, she spent a few moments on his claws – pointless considering they didn't need soothing. They were singed black, but they wouldn't be in any pain. Maybe he noticed that she dwelled a bit too long on them… carefully running her fingers over each nail, fascinated by them. They weren't razor sharp, but actually rather blunted, the way dogs nails were blunt, but when applied with force could inflict some pretty heavy damage.

"Uh… Kagome… my arm feels better now…" He was definitely noticing something odd by now.

Kagome froze and suddenly dropped her hands. "Good, good!" she piped. "Well, I'll just apply the bandage and you'll be all done!"

He watched as she picked up a roll of the pristine material and pushed his arm back up that had been sinking back to his side.

If Kagome had thought that applying the cream had been sweet torture, the bandage was only slightly worse. She started wrapping his hand first, before moving further up to apply the bandage to his entire arm. Along the entire way she was unwilling to notice how well shaped his appendage arm was… strong and firm to the touch and sight – but also limber and supple.

Damn him!

Kagome hastily dropped her hands back when she was done, quickly turning away to hide her burning cheeks as she put away her supplies in their original box and moved to put it away. When she turned back she had the blush under control and saw Inuyasha taking a big sniff of his arm. "Mm… smells like… aloe vera!"

She smiled to see his grin and moved forward to offer him his shirt again. "We can change it again in a few days when you get that one dirty."

Inuyasha shrugged back into his shirt and lazily tucked it back into his hakama. "Oh yeah… by the way."

She looked up at him expectantly, magically easy in his presence again now that he wasn't half naked.

"I'm glad you can talk again. It was getting lame having to write out conversations and whatever…" he looked down at his gently flexing bandaged hand with a look she could have sworn was edging on sheepish-ness.

"Good." She grinned. "Cause I couldn't wait to tell you that your handwriting really bites."

He shot her a stunned look… before returning her grin with a quirky one of his own. 

^_^

"No – no – you have to press the X button to jump!" Souta pummelled his handset.

Inuyasha was in a similar situation. "I _am _pressing the stupid button!" he battered it desperately. "It's not working – and stop kicking my head!"

"Well you're not defending!"

"I'm supposed to be defending?!"

Kagome passed a hand over her face with a sigh. They'd been at this for nearly an hour… who knew that Inuyasha would be the worst street fighter ever?

"Headlock!" Souta crowed happily.

"Get off me!" Inuyasha practically threw himself to the side as if that would tear his virtual self away from Souta's grip. Kagome winced as there was a loud cracking sound from the TV as Inuyasha's head was ripped off… in the virtual sense of course. Inuyasha slumped and dropped the handset. "Crud…"

"That's ten rounds to me and… nothing for you." Souta grinned at him. "I guess you lose."

"I guess that means we go for another round!" Inuyasha straightened quickly, but Kagome was suddenly above him, snatching the handset out of his hand, much to his annoyance. "Hey!"

"It's my turn." She told him, all but pushing him out of the way to sit down.

"No way!" Her brother protested loudly. "It's still Inuyasha's turn – at least I get a perfect score when I play against him!"

"Hey!" Inuyasha huffed angrily.

"Oh, you sit this round out Inuyasha. Give your arm a rest." Kagome nudged him aside again. "Now which character shall I choose…?"

With another angry huff Inuyasha took up Kagome's previous position on the sofa, watching them battle it out on the playstation while mindlessly picking at his bandage.

"Stop picking – I can hear you." Kagome warned over her shoulder as she proceeded to kick Souta's ass, literally.

"I wasn't picking!" he retorted, but quickly withdrew his hand with seeming innocence.

Kagome and Souta were halfway through the round when Mrs Higurashi appeared at the doorway. "Kids, I need help folding the laundry."

No one made any indication that they'd heard her.

Mrs Higurashi sighed. "Souta, why don't-"

"Kagome can do it." The boy interrupted.

"Grandpa can do it." Kagome followed.

"He's out at the chess club." She reminded them.

"Then Inuyasha can do it." The two siblings told her simultaneously.

"I thought I was supposed to be resting my arm?" he pointed out coolly.

"You don't have to Inuyasha, you're our guest." Mrs Higurashi told him kindly.

"Nah, I was about to offer anyway." He stood and followed her out the door, but not before he casually glanced back and flicked his wrist towards the playstation…

The power went dead and suddenly Kagome and Souta were staring at a Tv screen full of snow. Inuyasha snickered to himself as he heard the various shouts from the living room. "What did you do?!" Souta was shrieking. "My perfect score!"

"_Your _perfect score?! – I was about to pound you into the ground!" Was Kagome's reply.

"Are you sure you're ok with that arm?" Mrs Higurashi asked pleasantly as she guided him into the laundry room. Inuyasha shrugged as he ogled the piles of freshly ironed clothes and sheets uneasily.

"It looks worse than it actually is. Kagome just got carried away with the bandage." He told her.

"She tends to get carried away when she's around people she likes." Mrs Higurashi smiled secretively as she picked up a sheet and tossed him one end. "You know how to fold sheets right?"

"Right. It's not like I haven't done housework before."

"I can't tell you enough how lucky Kagome is to have you around so much." Mrs Higurashi said cheerfully as they co-ordinated their movements. "I felt very guilty for taking her out of the city… she loved the old house very much… the Shrine grounds and especially the goshinboku tree. It broke her heart having to take her away."

"Yeah… I got that impression." Inuyasha put the corners together and flapped again, before folding once more to pass his end back to Kagome's mother. "Why did you guys move anyway?"

"Money problems."

"I got the impression there was something more than that." Inuyasha remarked tactlessly as another sheet was tossed his way.

"I suppose Kagome didn't tell you about her father?" Mrs Higurashi still smiled, but it had turned a little sad now. "I trust she'll tell you in her own time."

Translation: 'I'm not telling you anything, stranger'.

"But who knows how long we'll be staying here, getting under Grandpa's feet?" Mrs Higurashi told him conversationally. "Maybe in time Kagome will be able to get a job and move back into central Tokyo… but until then…" She was slowing her folding, forcing Inuyasha to slow down to match her pace. "So you've been here a year? Do you plan to stay?"

"Actually… I'll be leaving soon." He cast a thoughtful eye to the heaps of washing behind Mrs Higurashi that still needed folding.

"Really? When do you plan to go?" Mrs Higurashi looked a little saddened by this news.

"Dunno… in the near future." He shrugged and finished folding the second sheet with her.

"That's a shame… Kagome would be sad to see you go."

Inuyasha stared at her, not understanding why she would say something like that. Kagome's mother just shrugged lightly and turned to select a new sheet… only… they'd all been folded. "Uh…" she gazed at the neat piles before her. "Weren't these all… um…"

"Well that's all the folding done." Inuyasha said cheerfully as he walked off. "Nice chat Mrs H."

"I don't remember doing all this…" Mrs Higurashi continued to stare, dumb-founded. "Must have… just blacked out…" 

^_^

"Are you going to tell me what you were doing this morning yet?" Kagome asked amiably as she stepped into her bedroom and closed the door. "Or are you going to get lost so I can get changed for bed?"

"I told you. Don't ask me about it." Inuyasha grouched.

"I could always force you to tell me." She told him with a warning look as she approached her bed where he was currently stretched out upon. "But… I've also promised myself not to take advantage of my power like that."

He rolled his eyes. "Because you're such a nice person, I get it."

"No… I'm just hoping you trust me enough to tell me in your own time."

He scoffed at the unlikeness of that possibility and rolled over to face the wall away from her. She sighed and shook her head. "Fine… I guess that just proves how much you're willing to trust me."

Inuyasha carried on glaring at the wall as he heard her grab her clothes and storm out to get changed. She could have ordered him to leave… but she hadn't. He shook his mental self with a growl. He had to admit that she was different from the others… but that didn't necessarily mean he should try and attach himself to her. It only ended in tears after all…

She didn't need to know any more than she had to. And he didn't need to tell her anything unnecessary. That was the way it had always been. And that was the way it would always be…

Except he'd broken the rules with one girl… and he wasn't about to make the same mistake so soon after.

With a sigh he rolled onto his back and watched the ceiling without really seeing it. What would happen now? Onigumo no longer existed… but he was still out there. Even if he was now vessel to a thousand demons, would his mind and soul still rise up and take control of his new form? Or would it remained buried for eternity? And more importantly – what _was _his new form now?

He'd never worried about Onigumo in the past – he'd been classed as a secondary master – a master who's priority always came after the primary master. Since Kikyo had found him first, she was primary. But one of her wishes had introduced Onigumo into the picture, and that had eventually resulted in him discovering Inuyasha's identity. Wishbringers couldn't refuse any master… and so Inuyasha had no choice but to obey him as well as Kikyo… but Kikyo's wishes still came first, and she was the master he was bound to follow. Onigumo being second class meant that Inuyasha didn't have to stay beside him all the time, that he didn't have to wait on him hand and foot, that if he made a wish against Kikyo first, Kikyo could still make a counter wish effectively against the second rate fiend…

Which was exactly what happened.

And since no matter what the situation, when a master's life expires, or their wishes expire, the Wishbringer has to return to its container – Inuyasha had returned back to sleep. Onigumo had never found the container again… but his last four wishes were still valid.

He still had one left. But it was doubtful he'd ever be able to use it again.

Now Kagome had found him. When he'd first awoken he'd been afraid that Onigumo had found him at last and planned to consume the last of his wishes. That's why it had confused him when he's realised his new master looked almost exactly like Kikyo. He'd kept his distance for a few hours before making his presence known…

It was possible that Kagome was some kind of reincarnation. Though it could be just as likely that their matching appearance was coincidence. Either way it didn't matter. Kagome wasn't Kikyo, so why speculate the link between them? 

Problem was… Kagome's life was now in danger thanks to Onigumo… thanks to Inuyasha more like…

Maybe it was in her best interests to warn her about him? To keep her safe and aware of what was out there now.

Inuyasha snorted and turned back to face the wall. Maybe he should just terminate himself and save her the hell she would face in his company. She was just a kid… she didn't deserve to be faced with the same things he had faced… she was pure spirited and innocent. Just the way Kikyo had been up until… but he'd tainted that girl and now she was dead in an act of murder-suicide.

A gentle humming began behind him and he started. He was sure he hadn't heard Kagome come back in… if she had, she'd been awfully quick changing her clothes. He sat up and looked across the room, gaze fixing on the girl sitting at her dresser in her night-clothes, combing her hair with a small brush in long sweeping strokes.

It wasn't Kagome.

Inuyasha stared at her back, uneasily and reproachfully. "Who the hell are you?" There was a subtle stench of death… and some kind of poison that tainted the air of the room. She didn't smell familiar to him in any way…

The humming stopped, a few moments before the girl set down her comb on the dresser and turned to face him. His heart literally skipped a beat.

"Kikyo…"

"I am condensed evil. Purified hatred and malice. I am pure darkness… and…" The imitation of Kikyo rose from the stool to fix him with a cool look, a conceited smile he could recognise as his own tilted her lips. "I am your creation. Though you may call me Naraku."

AN: Ok – and _that _will be explained later. Ciao for now! 


	10. The Hanging Threat

****

Author's Notes: Ok, this story is definitely going to be longer than 10 chapters (and it's making me squirm a little – meaning it's not turning out as planned… but I'm not _too _worried…)

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 10

The Hanging Threat

"What the hell-!" Inuyasha hissed curtly as he practically threw himself off the bed to his feet. "Onigumo?!"

It was disconcerting, to say the least, looking into Kikyo's face again like this. She was wearing exactly the same night dress as the one she wore when she'd… But _this _wasn't Kikyo!

"Onigumo?" a perfect frown tilted the creatures brow. "Am I Onigumo…? I suppose you could say that. Well… part of him at least… of what remains, here," she pointed to her chest where the heart would be. "I remember what he remembers… all of his nasty perverted little thoughts."

Inuyasha glanced anxiously to the door and prayed that Kagome didn't return any time soon. He quickly flashed Naraku a glare. "Why are you wearing that stupid form?! You're not Kikyo – you're not even trying to pretend to be her so why bother?!"

"Aw…" she cocked her head. "After all the effort you put into making me – I thought I'd return the favour and offer you something you lost."

"Bull!" he clenched his fists, ready to use them.

"You're right. I have no intention of doing you any favours." Naraku said, bitterness creeping into his tone. "Perhaps I'm just reminding you of the face you so mercilessly destroyed fifty years ago?"

"You better leave before I rip you a new-!!"

"Ever the violent one aren't you?" Naraku commented coolly with hooded eyes. "I did not come to make small talk with you. Rather I came to warn you."

Inuyasha shifted tensely, claws flexing with anticipation. "Of what?"

"That the minute you let your guard drop, I will make you suffer for what you did to Kikyo. My Kikyo."

"You bastard-" Inuyasha lunged forward, trying to make a grab for her. She side stepped his blow and used his momentum to grab his injured arm and ram him into the wall, holding him there with strength that was inhuman and very un-Kikyo-like.

"You took away everything she loved. You killed her father, you put her in this isolated hellhole and then you drove her to the brink and urged her to kill herself!" Kikyo's voice hissed in his ear as he struggled to break free. "I'll never forgive you!"

"What do you care – you never met her!" Inuyasha ground out, still trying to push away from the wall but without any effect.

"Onigumo's heart still resides within this chest – and with it all I feel is unequalled hatred for you!" she twisted his right arm, whilst Inuyasha bit down on his lip to keep from voicing his pain. "In return, I'll take all you love. I'll drive you to the edge and I _will _kill you."

"Fuck you!" Inuyasha flung his left arm out and raked his claws along the sleeve of her night dress. He could have taken the arm off… but somehow, it was too disturbing to harm Kikyo's image. Either way, it produced the desired effect and Naraku backed off quickly.

"You better sleep with one eye open, asshole." Kikyo's face contorted with anger. "And so had that little incarnation too!"

That had been the last straw for Inuyasha and he drew back a fist, claws bared ready to detach head from body. "You leave Kagome out of this you-"

A tiny smile flickered on her face before she dissipated in a fashion similar to his own, and his blow swiped through nothing but air. He looked around wildly for a moment before kicking the old bookcase, soundly shattering the bottom shelf and spilling its contents of books. "Dammit!" he shouted to no one in particular.

"What's got your knickers in a twist?" Kagome asked as she entered the room again, glass of water in one hand and her day clothes in the other. She spotted the shattered shelf of the bookcase and turned a dry look on Inuyasha. "You're lucky I didn't like that shelf."

"Get off my case!" Inuyasha snapped in her direction before dissipating the same way Naraku had.

Kagome blinked in surprise. "What the heck happened to that guy…?" she shook her head and headed for the bed, oblivious to what had taken place in the bedroom only seconds before.

^_^

This was bad, this was very, _very _bad.

Inuyasha paced the top of the oil tank whilst tugging restlessly on his hair. This was so bad, he didn't think there was anything that could be worse. He'd had a fair few enemies in his time, but perhaps this was the first enemy he was actually worried about. Because not only was he himself a target… but now Kagome was as well – and only because of her misfortune to resemble Kikyo.

What was he supposed to do?

Some… super demon was walking around out there with Onigumo's heart and soul and Kikyo's body… though Inuyasha doubted that was Naraku's only form. The chances of him being some kind of shape shifter were high… and worrying. The creature was as strong as a thousand Youkai… and had focused all his hate on Inuyasha, and was probably focusing all his lust and base desires on sweet, innocent Kagome.

Perhaps now was a good time to warn her… she had to know about this, or else she might just walk blindly into danger.

"Dammit…" he dropped down, cross-legged, on the oil tank and let his chin fall against his chest while the night breeze brushed his hair around him. How had this happened?

This was the fault of his curse. He'd destroyed Kikyo just like he'd destroyed himself, and if that hadn't been punishment enough just to see – but now he was going to witness a repeat of the events fifty years ago. Naraku – Onigumo reborn, was out to get Kagome and himself again. Kagome – most likely Kikyo reborn, was about to be killed once more.

Perhaps it was useless trying to prevent the effects of his curse? Maybe he should just sit back and let his master get destroyed. It would save him a lot of grief and trouble trying to defend her, then in fifty more years or so, he would find a new master and begin with a new slate. He could forget about this messy business with Onigumo… or Naraku or whatever…

Though he knew, even whilst toying with the idea, that that option was out of the question. He was mean (he'd admit that much) but he wasn't as cruel as to just sit back and watch Kagome fall victim to Onigumo/Naraku the way Kikyo had. He couldn't watch it happen… not again…

In which case… it was probably best to go warn her. Now.

He pushed himself to his feet again and relocated himself into her bedroom again, feeling the weightlessness that came with the process of dissipating into thin air. Her room surrounded him quickly and he turned uneasy eyes to her bed under the window. The moonlight spilled down over her form and he inched forward cautiously.

"Hey…" he called in barely more than a whisper. "You awake?"

There was no reply, so he inched further towards the bed until he could lean over her to see her face. She was sound asleep, one hand tucked under the pillow and the other resting near her forehead. For a moment he froze… wondering if he should try and wake her up to speak with her…

But it seemed wrong to ruin her peace. So instead he pulled away from her and turned, ready to remove himself from her room so he could brood somewhere else quietly to himself. But he stopped… what if Naraku struck as early as tonight? Inuyasha steeled an uncertain glance back at Kagome… she wouldn't stand a chance alone, would she?

With a sigh he came to his decision and flopped down onto the floor, using the bed to lean against. He'd just stay here for tonight, make sure she was ok, and come morning he'd leave. She probably wouldn't like to know he'd stayed in her room all night…

^_^

Kagome squeaked a yawn out the next morning as she stretched in bed, tangling the sheets around her legs and accidentally managing to push her pillow off the mattress onto the floor. Not that she needed it now…

The bird were twittering happily outside her window again and she grinned to herself, still over the moon with the fact that her ears were all in proper working condition again. And just to make sure her vocal chords were in a similar condition she opened the window and let loose a loud, "Boo!"

The birds scattered instantly, and she giggled to herself as she closed the rusty window again. Ah… life was good.

Her morning routine basically followed the same path as the yesterday routine – which involved lots of stamping feet, splashing water and banging doors. She deliberately aimed to step on every creaky floorboard on the way from her room, down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Morning!" she chirped happily as she found her family already sitting down at the breakfast table – Souta in his school uniform already. "How's everyone this fine morning?"

"Knackered." Groaned Souta as he munched his toast lethargically.

"Stiff." Grandpa griped whilst rubbing his back.

"I think I'm getting the flu…" Mrs Higurashi responded, sniffling into her handkerchief.

"That's nice." Kagome smiled good-naturedly as she grabbed a bit of toast from Souta's dish and went off to go search for Inuyasha. He was bound to be around somewhere.

The first place she looked for him was outside – presumably near the old oil tank where he usually liked to haunt. To her mild surprise, he wasn't actually near the tank – but on the bridge across the river a short distance away. Not that that was important. She cheerfully toddled across the yard and into the trees, heading for the bridge. His back was turned to her, but she could tell he knew she was coming, seeing as his ears were both trained on her.

"Morning." She greeted and broke the toast into two equal halves. "You want some of this? Mom makes really nice toast."

He regarded her sort of strangely for a moment, like for a moment he was trying to figure her out. Shee held out the offered half as she chewed on her own. "Hurry or it'll get cold."

He seemed to accept this and took the toast, though he made no move to eat it.

"So anyway," she flipped her hair over her shoulder as she leaned onto the bridge rail and looked down at the fast moving water below. "I had this dream last night – that I was in the Antarctica, with all the penguins and polar bears and Eskimos and whatever. And I figured, I don't want to live here, it's too cold, I'll wake up in the morning with frost bite on my toes. So. I woke up and it sorta gave me an idea… and… why are you looking at me as if I've grown another head?"

He'd been staring at her rather intently, but as soon as she'd commented on it, he smiled slightly, shook his head and looked down at the river. "You were saying?"

"Yeah, well, I had the dream about the snowy place up north-"

"South."

Kagome nearly choked on her toast. "You what?" she patted her chest.

"Antarctica is South. Arctic is north." He said evenly, picking at the toast in his hands.

"Er… ok." she tried again. "So I dreamt about the snowy place down _south_ and then I got this great idea for a new wish – my sixth one – and I swear I'll try not to mess it up this time… and… you're doing it again."

This time he didn't bother looking away. "What do you think of me… Kagome?"

"Uh…" she stared back at him, nonplussed.

"What did you think of me when you first met me?" She nearly jumped out of her skin when his hand reached across to her as if about to touch her face, instinctively she took a step back.

"W-why are you asking me something stupid like that?" she stammered slightly. But her inhibition suddenly flew out of her head when she realised something. She practically lunged at him to grab his arm. "Hey – you're burns have all gone – that's amazing!"

"Funny how little things amuse you." He smiled, but it seemed small and empty, one she hadn't seen since when she'd first met him and she'd thought he was a total ass. "And you're diverging from my question."

"What question?" Kagome blinked at him, sincerely having forgotten it already.

"Of what you thought of me when you met me."

"I thought you were an ass." She said honestly. No need to sugar the pill.

"And what about now?"

Now? That was slightly trickier to answer… "Um… w-why do you ask?" Why did she have to stammer every time he asked something too personal and close to home?

He sighed and suddenly she found herself tugged forward into a loose kind of embrace. He was stroking her hair and breathing in deeply. Kagome was too stiff with shock to know what to do.

"You are a very beautiful woman, you know that?" he told her softly. "A cool kind of beauty."

"I-I don't…" her heart was thundering against her rib cage, and she wasn't at all sure she liked how he was holding her. "I-Inuyasha – what are you doing?" He didn't reply, and when she raised a hand against his chest to push away, his grip only tightened. Not enough to hurt her, but it alarmed her nonetheless. She couldn't break away.

"Inuyasha – this is ridiculous – stop it!"

He didn't stop. She tried once again to push away, but it was like being held in an embrace of iron, no way was she going to overpower him. She tried twisting and wiggling to dislodge him, but it didn't work. "I order you to stop it – this minute!" For some reason she was having trouble looking him in the face, she looked everywhere except his person, still struggling. "Let go!"

Why wasn't he obeying her? Had the fourth wish she'd made to control him expired? If so, why? And why was he doing this in the first place? – he'd never even given a hint of this kind of thing before… and she didn't like it. "Inuyasha – get off me!"

"We should go somewhere where there's more privacy." He suddenly stated, ignoring her struggles as he proceeded to turn and drag her off into the trees.

"NO!" She struggled fiercely this time, throwing her weight this way and that. She nearly got loose at one point – but he quickly grabbed her forearms in such a tight grip, she thought her circulation had been cut off.

"Don't make this more difficult than it has to be, girl."

Wasn't he calling her 'Kagome' a minute ago? "This isn't funny anymore!" she yelled. "I wish you'd let me go!" 

He just laughed and ignored her. Now she knew something was definitely wrong with him…

"_Kagome!_"

Kagome tried to turn towards the source of the voice behind her, but before she could get a fix she was suddenly hurled to the ground roughly, landing awkwardly against a tree before slumping to the ground, her senses reeling. She was aware of harsh curses being snapped into the air and the sound of rustling clothes and breathing as though some kind of tussle was going on. There was sharp Inuyasha-like cry and a thud that followed.

Though by the time Kagome had enough energy and will to raise herself up off the ground, all she saw was a very out of breath Inuyasha sitting in the middle of the forest floor, four nasty gashes running across his cheek. The blood was trickling down his face in small little rivulets, until he swiped a hand across the skin, smearing the blood together, staining the white bandage on his right arm.

__

This was not the same guy who'd just attempted to kidnap her.

She looked around hesitantly to verify there was no one else. "Inu… Inuyasha?" she called timidly.

He glanced at her and waved a few fingers weakly to acknowledge her. He was still breathing hard. Kagome instantly scrambled to her feet and ran to him. When she reached him she fell on her knees and pushed his hair out of the way so she could see his injury. He winced slightly but didn't try to fend her off.

"What happened just now?" she grimaced as the wince he'd made caused the gashes on his face to ooze just a little bit more blood. "That's so gross…"

"Oh, so sorry…" he grumbled sarcastically between pants, "… that my injuries offend you."

"You just saved me from that… that guy…" Kagome looked around. "Where'd he go?"

"He's gone. Don't worry about him now…" Inuyasha sighed wearily.

"He looked just like you." Kagome turned back to him. "Was he another Wishbringer?"

"No. He was… something else… I'm not quite sure…" Inuyasha rose shakily to his feet, despite Kagome's squeaky protests that he should lie down for a while. "It's only a scratch!" he argued.

"Yeah, but you're all wobbly and shaken-"

"I'm not shaken – I'm just worn out." He shot back, but without much fire behind the words. After all, he hadn't gotten a lot of sleep last night.

"You can lean on me if you want?" she offered her shoulder.

"No thanks – you're too short."

"Gee, thanks." Fisted a hand in his haori and started dragging him back in the direction of the house. "We need to get you mended again."

"Aw… no more bandages, please!"

^_^

"So who was he?" Kagome asked as she dabbed the damp, cotton ball against his cheek. She had to give him credit, he was very brave to bear it all with a stoic expression.

"Naraku."

"Who?"

"Some bozo who can change forms… I dunno…" Inuyasha shrugged.

"He knew my name…" Kagome frowned as she jerked his chin to the side to get better access at his cheek. "How come he knew me? How come you know him?"

Inuyasha seemed a little reluctant to answer. She frowned. "I don't care if you don't want to tell me – I'm _ordering _you to. This has gone beyond a joke now – I want to know what's going on."

"I know him… because I made him."

"Made him what?" Kagome threw the cotton ball away and picked up a new one. "Damn you bleed a lot…"

"Sorry." He narrowed his eyes briefly at her, and she caught the cynical look he gave her. "Anyway… I made _him._ My master, yesterday he wished for ultimate power that could equal a thousand demons. So now he's blended with a thousand demons and the end result was the bastard who just tried to attack you."

"H-hang on." Kagome pulled back from him sharply. "You had another master – and you didn't tell me?!"

"Uh…" he stared at the floor sheepishly. "Well… no…"

"How long has it been going on behind my back?" she planted her hands on her hips, a look of hurt on her face. "You were two-timing me? W-with some kind of psycho? Is that where you kept disappearing off to all the time? You were going to _him_?!"

"Shut up! You make it sound like some kind of sleazy affair!"

"How come you didn't tell me?!"

"You didn't need to know!"

"I would have _liked _to have known." Kagome lowered her head slightly, still looking hurt. "You really don't trust me do you?"

"That's not it!" he snapped angrily. "I'd forgotten about him – he was my master fifty years ago-"

"I thought Kikyo was your master fifty-"

"Let me finish! They both were my master – I gave them ten wishes each – but Kikyo died before Onigumo so-"

"Who's Oni-"

"Naraku."

"He changed his name?"

"He's not the same person!"

"That's confusing! Stop changing it!" she cried.

"I'm not! I'm trying to explain!" he fisted a hand in his hair with exasperation. "Just listen to me! Onigumo was my master fifty years ago, and he's been living in this world while I've been sleeping five decades away in the attic. He only found me again yesterday – that's why I went missing. He started using up his last wishes… one of them was to bring _you _to _him_…"

"What did he want with me?" Kagome frowned. "I've never even heard of him before."

"Well… he knew Kikyo… and you look an awful lot like Kikyo."

"I do?" She blinked at him in surprise, but passed it off as superficial. He didn't think she quite realised how deep the resemblance was. "That's weird. So… I'm guessing he liked Kikyo…"

"In a disgusting, perverted way." She noticed the way he bristled as he spoke of this. "I had no choice but to bring you to him."

"So _that's _why you kidnapped me!" she clicked her fingers. "Now it makes sense."

"Yeah, whatever… anyway, like I said, one of his wishes was to gain power – and now he's kinda out to get me and you."

"Oh." Kagome nodded as if that was a reasonable comment.

He stared at her. "'Oh'?" he echoed, dumbfounded. "What do you mean 'oh'?"

"Well… I'm not too worried. Should I be?" she asked lightly. "I mean, you saved me last time – you'll protect me right? You're my Wishbringer after all."

"Yes – Wishbringer! Not bodyguard!" he folded his arms huffily. "I might not be able to get there the next time something like that happens."

"But – you'll try, right?"

"Maybe…"

"Then I'm satisfied." She nodded firmly. "You'll look out for me."

"Hey!" he snapped indignantly. "There is nothing in my job description that says I have to defend you! I only have to grant your wishes – anything else isn't my business-"

"But you wouldn't just stand by and let a girl get hurt by some monster that _you _helped create, would you?" she pointed out with a quirked eyebrow.

His mouth worked for a moment, before he firmly shut it. She was clever… and very quick to see the truth for what it was. "True…" he admitted grumpily. "But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm making it my reason to live – to protect you, I mean."

She just beamed at me knowingly and picked up some gauze. She pressed it against his cheek, ignoring his hiss of pain. "Hold it there." She ordered gently before getting some medical tape to strap it to his face. "There… now it just looks like you cut yourself shaving in a major way."

"I don't have to shave." He told he as he poked the gauze inquisitively.

"Well that doesn't surprise me." She said breezily as she packed away the medical supplies. Then she suddenly remembered something. "Oh! I had something I wanted to tell you!"

"Uh huh?" he looked her up and down warily. "Well, what is it?"

"Well I kinda already told that look-alike guy, but I don't think he was interested." She moved to sit down at the kitchen table with him. "So, I had this dream last night where I was-"

"Just cut to the point."

She huffed. "Well at least the other guy listened." She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, it gave me an idea for a sixth wish."

"Oh no…"

"A holiday!" she grinned. "Won't that be great? Just some sunny getaway from this place – nice and subtle and not too greedy. Maybe some kind of tropical island? Or New Zealand – maybe Florida! I'll take the whole family and we can have fun and stuff. Cause it's not like we're gonna get any more holidays now that our income is practically… well, nothing right now. So I think a holiday would be just what we all need."

"You think?" he scowled. "It'll go wrong you know."

"Not if I make sure there are no loopholes when I make the wish." She was definitely excited by her idea. "I'll write it down first and then you can read it and make sure that you won't send me into space accidentally or anything."

He considered her for a moment. "Ok. We'll see if this works…"

^_^

"You have to make sure your Mom doesn't ask questions and refuse the holiday, remember?" he said as he leaned over her shoulder to read what she wrote.

"Yeah, yeah… I learned my lesson after that money thing." She nodded as she scribbled furiously at her desk.

"Self-catering or do you want your food given to you?" he pointed out.

"Uh… self-catering I think."

"And what about the location?"

"Hmm… Some random tropical island?" she guessed. He shook his head quickly.

"Never say random – you'll end up the worst place possible."

"Ok…" she sighed. "This is actually really hard…"

Many hours of research later and Inuyasha was finally letting up on the pressure. "That should be right… I can't see any more loopholes now." He told her seriously. She practically sagged in relief – who knew that wishing for the perfect holiday was the toughest thing since… well… ever.

"Ok, make the wish." He straightened, allowing her to pick up two page long essay.

"Do I have to read all this stuff out?" she groaned. "Can't I just wish for all the stuff mentioned on this sheet?"

"Sure." He shrugged. "Go ahead."

Kagome grinned a little. "Ok – I wish for all the stuff mentioned on this sheet."

He grinned back and gave a mock bow. "As you wish."

"Is that it?" she carried on grinning. "When do we get the phone call?"

"In five minutes."

Kagome leapt of her chair and ran out of the bedroom. "Souta! Get off the phone for ten minutes you gas bag!"

Feeling slightly more relieved, Inuyasha settled back down on the bed, arms folded and a thoughtful frown on his face. Maybe this was for the best. After all, what better way to hide Kagome from Naraku and keep her safe than just remove her from the country altogether? Naraku would never find her that way, and in the mean time Inuyasha would be able to think of a way to destroy the Hanyou he'd made…

Kagome had already suggested she use her sixth wish to destroy Naraku instead? Well… not destroy him, but kinda remove him from their lives in a humane sort of way. But, that was impossible. Master's couldn't force their Wishbringer to destroy or harm other masters of the Wishbringer. However you _could _wish other things, like making the other master a slave, sexually or otherwise. Anything was allowed… you just weren't allowed to harm the other master…

So there was no way Kagome could wish against Naraku. Besides… he still didn't like the idea of involving her anymore than she needed to be. Naraku was _his _problem, not Kagome's. She didn't need to worry about him…

Though Inuyasha had to be sure that Naraku never got as close to Kagome as he'd done earlier. 

That had scared him.

AN: Ah… um… er… what else do I say? Uh… back soon? 


	11. Five Tickets to Paradise

****

Author's Notes: Well the third movie is coming out soon, in December I presume. From what I know it's Inuyasha vs. Sesshomaru – and all I can say is that Inuyasha's pettiness must have come from his father's side since Sess seems to have a bit of it as well. How many times will those two clash swords for absolutely no reason other than the excuse of 'I don't like your face'? But then again, that's what's so great about them ^_^

Anyway, thanks to the problems with reviewing, I've now lost twenty odd reviews since June 9th – so if you reviewed between then and the 14th then I'm afraid it never showed up. That's annoying, but I guess it can't be helped.

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 11

Five Tickets to Paradise

Grandpa licked his thumb absently to turn the page of the newspaper he was reading. Another flood on the coast? Damn… the weather was turning a bit nasty for summer wasn't it? Well, it was probably compensation for some other country getting a bout of strangely good weather. 

The song playing on the radio finished and the old man half listened to the host whilst reading up on a beached whale.

"_And now it's time to announce the winner of our 'Five tickets to paradise' lucky draw. Five fortunate people will be flown straight out to a privately owned tropical island in the Indonesian Archipelago – first class tickets no less! And folks – the weather forecast for that place sure is fine!_"

"That's probably where all the good weather's drifted off to…" Grandpa murmured to himself.

"_The winner shall now receive their call of notification_." The host continued, and over the radio a dial tone could be heard.

Off in the kitchen the phone rang and Grandpa nearly chuckled. Wouldn't it just be great if that was the radio station calling up now? He shook off the thought with another laugh as he heard the sound of thundering feet above his head – obviously someone upstairs was rushing to answer the phone.

It stopped ringing before the feet had stopped running.

"_Hello?_" A woman said on the radio. Gee. She sounded a lot like his daughter. What a coincidence!

"_Congratulations! This a Izu FM and you've just won yourself five tickets to paradise!_"

"_To where?_"

Another female voice joined the woman on the radio. "_Gimme the phone Mom – Hello?!_"

Wow – that even sounded a heck of a lot like Kagome.

"_You've won the lucky draw of the month – how do you feel?_" the host was asking.

He didn't get a response seeing as the girl on the phone seemed to have dropped the device and was dashing away, her shouts of joy getting distant on the radio. Not soon after, Kagome shot past the living room with similar shouts of joy. "We won! We really did it! We're going to Paradise! Woohoo!"

"Hmmm." Was all Grandpa said as he put down his paper thoughtfully.

^_^

"We did it!" Kagome yelled as she launched herself into the bedroom and grabbed Inuyasha by the shoulders, shaking him ecstatically. "We're going to spend a week on a remote tropical island with restaurants and beaches and a whole villa all to ourselves!"

"I think my brain will come loose if you shake me any more!" he backed away sharply and flopped onto the edge of the bed, automatically folding his arms with a frown. "Well you seem happy."

"And _you _don't seem happy enough!" she tried to smile encouragingly. "Five tickets to paradise, baby!"

"Wha – wait! Five?!" he gaped at her. "You wrote four!"

"I… uh… might have changed it when you weren't looking." She told him earnestly.

"Why?! Who do you plan on taking with you?" he demanded.

She stared at him before clipping him around the ear. "You – you big dope!"

"Are you stupid or just a complete moron!" he snapped. "I don't need airline tickets to go – I can fit in the bottle and you can take me in your bag."

"And how will I explain you popping up on holiday to my Mom without coming on the plane with us?" she shot back. "Besides… it's fun going first class. I thought you might like to try it out with us? You know… have fun?"

He averted his gaze suddenly, looking down angrily at the floor. "I guess." He said jerkily.

Kagome sighed slightly as she watched him, before moving to sit down next to him. "Are you worried about Naraku still?" she guessed.

His silence was as good as any 'yes'.

"You shouldn't though." She reassured him. "I mean – the last time you two clashed claws, I seem to remember him being the one who ran away with his tail between his legs. He can't hurt you. Besides… it's _not _your fault about what happened to Kikyo anyway, so he's just got hold of the wrong end of the stick, that's all. I'm sure this whole misunderstanding can be cleared up and-"

"It's not a misunderstanding and it won't be cleared up." He snapped at her. "You wouldn't understand because you're too young and naïve to know what people like him are capable of. He doesn't forget and he doesn't forgive. He'll just keep coming back until his goal is obtained and then he'll move on without a second thought."

Kagome's brow puckered with a frown. "But… you still beat him – he won't be so quick to start a fight with you next time."

He turned a stare on her. "You just don't get it, do you? It's not _me _he's after. It's _you_. Because you're the spitting image of Kikyo. If he was only after me then I wouldn't be this worried – I wouldn't even give him a second thought if he was only after me! But you're not as strong as I am – he'd kill you in a second – or do worse to you and _that_ I might not be able to stop!"

He turned his glare back to the floor as Kagome watched him, stunned speechless for a moment or two. Did he really care that much about her safety? Was Naraku really as bad as Inuyasha was making him out to be? Most of all… when had he started caring whether she was safe or not?

He must have been half naked again, because her heart was beating unusually fast in her chest. She swallowed nervously and tried a new tactic to cheer him up. "Well… if we go on holiday, then he won't be able to follow us there, will he?"

"I don't think he can… no…" Inuyasha nodded.

Kagome beamed suddenly. "So what's your problem – we'll have a whole week free of worries!"

"Nothing will get you down, will it?" he smirked slightly at her happiness, not unkindly.

"Nope." She tugged on his hand. "Just as long as you help me pack!"

"Dang it…"

^_^

"Don't you think Kagome's a lot happier than she used to be?" Mrs Higurashi asked her father as they packed up her clothes together (she had a lot, so she needed as much help as she could get, though she didn't want to ask Inuyasha again in case she blacked out and found _everything _packed up without her).

"Do you think?" Grandpa chortled.

"Well… when she came here she was pretty… well… peeved I think is the word I'm looking for. Upset that we had to take her out of the city. We couldn't crack a smile out of her – it was like trying to make a rock bleed."

"You know what it is, don't you?" he pointed out.

"What?" she blinked at him.

"It's that friend of hers, Inuyasha." Grandpa winked at his daughter. "She certainly started cheering up when he came along."

"That's true." She admitted with a smile. "He's a blessing in disguise."

"He's always hanging around her."

"She's always talking to him." Mrs Higurashi suddenly clapped her hands together before her chest as she gasped happily. "What if they're in love! Oh – that's so romantic! They're perfect for one another – a devoted boy like Inuyasha is just what she needs."

"And a stable sane person is just what the boy needs to keep his feet on the ground." Grandpa went on. "Who knows, perhaps Inuyasha won't be so inclined to pack up his bags and leave like he said he would."

"I hope not… that would break poor Kagome's heart and we'd _never _be able to bring a smile out of her again…" Mrs Higurashi nodded quietly.

A few minutes later the conversation had proceeded just a _little_ bit further than usual.

"Big wedding or a small wedding, do you think?"

^_^

"Now don't worry Inuyasha," Kagome said in a deep calming voice as they passed down the walkway towards the place. The glass windows on either side of the little corridor gave them a good view of all the air vehicles along the runway. "It's not a demon or a huge metal bird – this is what we people of the future call-"

"An aeroplane." He said evenly. "Yes, I remember the Wright brothers were the first people to design and build a flying craft that could be controlled while in the air."

"Oh." Kagome blinked.

But he wasn't done yet. "Every successful aircraft ever built, beginning with the 1902 Wright glider, has had controls to roll the wings right or left, pitch the nose up or down, and yawthe nose from side to side. Three controls which let a pilot navigate an aeroplane in all three dimensions_,_ making it possible to fly from place to place. The entire aerospace business, the largest industry in the world, depends on that simple idea. So do spacecraft, submarines, even robots."

She gaped at him whilst Souta applauded behind them. "Wow… when we get back can you do my homework?"

"You already asked that and I said yes!"

Boarding went without a hitch and they soon found the individual seats. It could basically be summed up in four words. "So much leg room!"

In fact there were only about four other people in the first class with them. Kagome stretched out happily and dug her fingers into the ultra cushy arm rests. Beside her Inuyasha was listlessly flicking through the radio channels on his own arm rest, trying to decide which music he liked best. He settled on classical.

"You'll love the taking off part." Kagome told him. She was sat in the middle of a three seat row, Inuyasha on her right and Souta on her left by the window. They hadn't even taken off the ground yet but Souta was already glued to the glass.

"They all look like ants!" he squealed happily.

"Souta… they're only a few metres away." She pointed out.

"I meant giant ants – about the size of my thumb."

She rolled her eyes and turned her gaze to the front of their section. "Oh my god – we have a wide-screen Tv – a-and plasma screen!"

"And air-conditioning, and digestible food." Mrs Higurashi told them from where she was sat with Grandpa in the row before them.

"F-food?" Inuyasha fumbled to remove his earphones (how the hell did he put them on in the first place?). "When's the food coming?"

"Not until we reach halfway."

"Aw… nuts." 

Souta managed to tear himself away from the window long enough to grab Kagome's arm. "Hey – do we get to visit the cockpit and talk with the pilots?"

"You – you'll make them crash the plane." She scrubbed his hair affectionately. "But yeah, later on when we're up in the air."

"Cool!" he went back to watching the giant ants.

After fiddling around with the goodies available to them, and after lots of arguments between Inuyasha and Souta over who should sit next to the window (in which Kagome told Inuyasha to just stay where he was and for Souta to just shut up), they finally had lift off. A thoroughly enjoyable experience for everyone.

Kagome had to admit that she clenched the armrest a little tighter than necessary as they picked up speed along the runway – she'd forgotten how fast these huge lumbering planes were capable of going. Souta however was shouting for things to go faster and Inuyasha had one hand braced against his stomach.

"What's the matter?" she teased. "Scared?"

"I feel like I left my stomach back at the airport." And he kept getting this odd smell in his nose… perhaps it was the fuel from the engines. It smelt a little noxious for his liking, but it seemed to go away after a while. But all in all, he was having quite a lot of fun!

Once they were up in the air it was only a matter of time before they reached their destination… and their mid-flight meal of course. Inuyasha passed up the time by watching the in-flight movie, something with lots of explosions and fast cars. But eventually his growling stomach caught up with him and he tugged off the ear phones. "I'm hungry."

Kagome pointed to the baggage rack over their heads as she sipped on her bottle of diet coke. "I have some biscuits in my bag. You want one?"

"Or three?" he unfastened his belt and stood up to pull the handle on the small compartment. Almost at once he had to duck as a large, yellow bag flung itself at him. It hit the floor with a crack. Strangely enough, a shot of pain lanced through his insides in answer to the cracking sound. Kagome hadn't heard it though.

"Pass it up here and I'll get them for you." She held out her hands to receive it.

With a heavy feeling in his gut he sat back down and passed her the fallen bag. She opened the top and rummaged around for a moment before finally finding the packet of snacks she'd stocked up on. She held them out for Inuyasha to take. "Here you go." She smiled and dropped them into his awaiting hand…

Only… the packet slipped right through his hand like it was nothing but air and clattered to the floor in front of his seat. The hand in question seemed to lose its forms and furled away into the air like a dissipating red smoke. Kagome stared at him in horror. "What the hell…?"

Inuyasha was looking at his own hand in equal horror. "Shit… the bottle's broken…"

"What are you talking about – your bottle's right here in perfect condition…" she trailed off as she lifted the blue bottle out of the bag… except, the bottom of the delicate glass container was shattered and cluttering her bag with blue shards. "Oh no…"

"I'm fading." He said quietly, and so calmly that she didn't believe him for a moment. Though she quickly realised he was deadly serious. And if they didn't do something Inuyasha was just going to turn into a big cloud of smoke. 

"What do we do?!" she hissed, trying not to alert Souta or the rest of her family to what was happening. She tried to push his arm down and out of sight, but her hand passed right through it, clothing and all… resulting in more of his flesh breaking apart into mist.

"Get a new container – quickly!" he hissed back, taking her point and attempting to hide his arm with his other arm, which was also beginning to slowly disintegrate.

"But – we're on a plane!" she squeaked.

"And we can't do it here – people will see!" he glanced at her, suddenly all business. "Get a container and get us some privacy – _now_!"

Kagome's breath caught in her throat and she suddenly got an idea. "Come with me!" she hopped up nimbly and grabbed him by the front of his shirt to haul him up with her and drag him off down the plane. She couldn't hold on too long since his shirt too began to become insubstantial between her fingers. She led him as quickly as she could to the nearest bathroom that wasn't being used – all the way back in second class among the throngs of people. She grabbed Inuyasha by the hair and pulled him into the toilet, not remembering to care what on earth the people outside thought. She was more concerned with the fact that even his hair was beginning to evaporate like some kind of gas.

"Here – privacy." She said breathlessly, locking the door quickly so there would be no more intrusions.

"Yes, but we need a container!" he said hurriedly.

"Just a moment." She unscrewed the top of her coke and quickly swigged down the last few mouthfuls of liquid. Inuyasha watched her impatiently.

"You can't take a drink when I'm about to die!" he hissed. Half of his face was beginning to merge with the air. Kagome gasped as she finished the drink, beginning to feel a little queasy, but pushing the sensation aside. She held up the coke bottle to him. "Here – one container."

He stared at it. "I think I'd rather die."

"Take it already!" she shoved it towards him, only her hand and the bottle passed right through his chest. He was fast losing any humanoid shape. "Do your thing already – hurry!" Alarm creeping into her voice.

The wispy deteriorated remains of his arm reached for the bottle she held in her fist. At first she though he would just pass straight through it like before, but she was surprised to suddenly find firm solid fingers clasp the bottle over her own.

His form started pulling itself back together, moving up his arm so quickly she nearly blinked and missed it. Within seconds he was solid again… and solidly glaring at the bottle they jointly held. Kagome couldn't help but feel acutely aware of how strong and warm his fingers seemed over hers.

"I was once kept in a sacred Urn for the dead." He said snippily. "And now this?"

He wrenched the plastic bottle towards him, out of her grip as he inspected it. "I feel… cheap."

"Well… look on the bright side." She tried to offer helplessly. "At least it won't break so easily."

Just to put that theory to the test, Inuyasha smacked the bottle against the side of the small bathroom. "Dammit!" he snapped when it didn't break. He smacked it a few more times just for good measure.

"Hey – stop that! Do you _want_ to evaporate like some kind of cloud?!" she snapped.

"A cheap plastic coke bottle?!" he suddenly whirled on her, shoving the bottle under her nose. "Of all the containers in the world – you chose this common as muck thing we see here?!"

"It saved your life!" she snapped back.

It was not good to start an argument with someone in a room roughly two foot by three foot and was taken up largely by a toilet. For a start, it forced the two combatants to stand within inches of each other, shouting up and down their noses. Under normal circumstances, standing within mere millimetres of Inuyasha would have been Kagome's undoing. Too bad she was busy being angry with him.

"You could have at least had a Pepsi!" he growled. "At least those bottles look cooler – and the label isn't as stupid and gay!"

"You're stupid and gay! It's a perfect match!"

"WHAT?!"

"Maybe I shouldn't have even bothered helping you!" she gave him a shove in the chest, sending him back against the door with a thud. "Maybe I should have just let you evaporate!"

"Anything just to get rid of me, bitch!"

"Don't call me bitch!"

"Frog-eating wench!"

"Bite me!" she suddenly jumped. "Wait – don't bite me!"

"This is degrading and cheap and so demoralising that I, as an upstanding, well respected Hanyou Wishbringer of the 10th Generation, feel outraged!" he shouted. "And it's got your gob germs around the top!"

"Do I disgust you that much?!" she poked him in the chest again. But by then he seemed tired of being poked and shoved by the fairly petite girl and grabbed her hand, holding it stationary between them. But she'd asked a question and he was forced to answer.

"Of course you don't disgust me." he replied sulkily.

Kagome blinked in surprise at his statement, the hot anger began to leave her cheeks… only to be replaced by a slightly hotter blush for other reasons. Realisation hit her like a wet fish as she found how close she stood to him; how tightly he clasped her hand in his larger, warmer one; how both of them were a little too flushed and out of breath by expressing their anger in such a small confined and hot room… and how the anger was seeping out of his intense gaze as he began to realise the same things she had. 

"So are you saying you _want _my gob germs on your bottle?" she blurted suddenly, feeling a little overwhelmed at the hopeless feeling that throbbed along with her heart. The effect of her words was like a bucket of cold water on them both… and the look he gave her as he quickly dropped her hand made her think she'd made a bad joke at a funeral or something.

"Whatever…" he mumbled and averted his gaze quickly to the sink beside them. That was what he usually said when he was speechless, it ended discussions and conversations quickly… she noticed he used that word a lot when she pried a little too close to private matters.

Unconsciously, she rubbed the hand that he had held as she also averted her gaze towards the toilet.

It was rather pathetic and childish of them both, she decided.

"We better get back or Mom will begin to wonder." She warned him and he quickly nodded in agreement and took a step towards her, backing her against the wall. Her heart leapt into her throat suddenly as she wondered what new stunt he was trying to pull…

Ah… only opening the door behind him… She mentally kicked herself for being so ridiculous.

He unlocked the door and stepped out into an awaiting carriage of applause, wolf whistles and hoots. Kagome staggered out behind him and peered over his shoulder to see practically all over the second class passengers cheering them.

"Welcome to the mile high club!" was the general cheer.

Kagome suddenly shrunk and hid her burning face in the back of Inuyasha's haori (the one that had been clumsily stitched up again). "Oh my god…"

Inuyasha scratched his ear. "What the hell's the mile high-"

"Stop talking and don't ask that again." She ordered, grabbing his arm and dragging him quickly back off to first class. Thank the mother of god that her own mother hadn't witnessed that. Inuyasha was still puzzled but unable to say anything about it as she pushed him back down into his seat and sat down herself.

"Where'd you two go?" Souta inquired.

"Cock pit." Kagome managed to stumble out.

"But… you were at the back of the plane." He pointed out.

"We joined the mile high club." Inuyasha told him. "Whatever that is."

"What's that?" Souta asked Kagome who was blanching heavily.

"I-I have no idea." She lied, praying to the grandmother of god that the two older Higurashi's with the headphones in their ears hadn't just overheard that…

^_^

Inuyasha settled down and forgot his short temper tantrum when the food was served up. Kagome figured he usually just got grumpy on an empty stomach, and made a mental note that in future, if ever his ears started to steam – to stick a biscuit in his mouth to shut him up before he went off.

The landing was the only part that no one liked. The jolt as the wheels hit the runway had everyone jerking in their seats.

"It's not normally that unsteady is it?!" Kagome panicked. "Are we crashing?"

"Uh…" Inuyasha listened and observed. "We seem to have stopped. But maybe…"

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. The pilots gave the low-down on the weather outside, whilst Souta watched the scorching heat make the air above the tarmac of the runway shimmer like some kind of illusion – making the airport ahead seem like a mirage.

"Wow…" he breathed. "This is the first time I've ever been abroad like this."

From the airport in the capital of Jakarta, it was just a matter of hopping into a pre-arranged helicopter to fly out to their little island villa where they would be staying. Kagome watched the water and reefs flash below them with avid interest, while Souta clung to her arm like a koala bear. Inuyasha just watched with a strangely mute expression… like he was thoughtful.

"What's the matter?" she asked him.

"I smell something odd." He replied, having to shout over the noise, "I smelt it on the plane too."

"Don't worry – probably just the fuel!" she gave him thumb's up to show it was all ok.

He nodded and turned his attention back to the flashing waters beneath. Actually… if the journey went on like this much longer, his mid-flight meal might be relived.

"Look – look!" Kagome suddenly bounced up in her seat beside him. She grabbed his neck when he seemed to ignore her and literally hauled him over. "There it is look!"

"I'm looking!" he pushed her hands off huffily, not liking to be disturbed while he was thinking (like most men). "What am I looking at?"

"That island there!" she pointed again, looking excited.

He followed her finger and nodded with a light smile. "Hey – I can see the villa."

It was in a good position too – right on a hill above a beach looking out to the east so it would catch the sunset in the morning. The weather looked fine (and would stay fine as they'd planned in the sixth wish) and Naraku seemed a million miles away. A heavy feeling that had been weighing on Inuyasha's heart since he'd heard Onigumo coming down the road lifted a little. Who said escaping your problems got you no where?

As soon as they'd landed Souta was already dashing off in the direction of the beach. Kagome jumped out onto the platform beside the helicopter and waved after him. "Hey! I'm not carrying your bags you know!" she blinked in surprise when Inuyasha shot past her, also on the way to the beach. "I'm not carrying yours either!"

"Don't have none!" he yelled back over his shoulder.

"Men." Her mother said as she dropped out of the helicopter beside Kagome. "Give them something fun to do and they're all little kids again." She commented as Grandpa also started toddling off in the direction of the beach.

When all the bags had been unloaded the helicopter took off again with a blast of wind short of a tornado. Kagome clamped her hands over her hair as it moved away from the platform and started flying away. Souta ran after it, shouting and waving his hands.

"Well here we are, marooned on the tropical island of our dreams." Mrs Higurashi sighed happily and lifted her arms to face the sun. "I could get used to this… But first we have to take all the bags into the… uh… Kagome?"

"They can wait!" Kagome called over her shoulder as she trotted down the rocky path from the helicopter pad to the beach. "They're not going anywhere!"

Mrs Higurashi watched as her daughter sneakily crept up behind Inuyasha who had been balancing precariously on an outcrop of rocks over the crystal clear waters, only to push him in and run away laughing. Naturally the boy wasn't just going to let that slide – and soon found herself dumped off the same rocky outcrop into the sea by a very wet Inuyasha.

Mrs Higurashi smiled to herself as she looked back at the bags. There was no one on this side of the island for at least a mile – so there was little or no chance of their bags being stolen. Well, if you couldn't beat them – join them! Kagome's mother shrugged and went after the rest of her family down the rocky path to the beach below.

^_^

"Bagsie my room!" Souta yelled, throwing himself down onto the bed in the largest bedroom in the villa. Kagome ran around desperately searching for the next size down. Unfortunately two of the remaining three bedrooms were occupied by Grandpa and her mother already. She cursed and settled her suitcase down onto the bed in the smallest bedroom. Well… at least it was a cool King size water bed! (Just like the one she'd wished for.)

"And where's my room?" Inuyasha strolled into the cosy room behind her.

Realisation hit Kagome like a ton of bricks. "Oops." She glanced back at him apologetically. "Remember when I changed the number of plane tickets to five? I may have forgotten to change the number of rooms in the villa to five too…"

"Oh well." He didn't look too upset. "I guess I can sleep away my nights in the cosy… _coke _bottle." She didn't miss the way he almost spat the word 'coke'.

"I said I was sorry… are you still mad?" Was he really that petty to hold ridiculous grudges?

"Nah, it's just that if I spend too much time in a coke bottle, I start smelling like coke myself…" he sniffed his clothes tentatively and pulled a face.

Great… he was trying to pull the guilt trip.

"Actually I kinda smell like seaweed." He remarked.

"Well… sorry about the mix-up." She moved and awkwardly patted him on the shoulder, earning an odd look from Inuyasha. She quickly retracted her hand and wondered why she'd done that… "But… I guess you can always take the sofa if you don't like sleeping in the bottle… it won't make anyone suspicious either, if you don't disappear at night, that is… right?" she suddenly smiled. "And Naraku hasn't shown his ugly shape-shifting face here has he?"

Inuyasha jerked an uncertain gaze to her. "Right…" he said quietly.

Damn… he looked so gloomy and serious. Kagome took it upon herself to do something about it. "Ok – I think we need another beach trip." She concluded as she grabbed his hand and began dragging him out the small bedroom to the French doors at the end of the corridor. She stumbled to a halt when Inuyasha reversed their grip so he held her wrist instead and began to drag her in the direction of the vast kitchen.

"We raid the fridge first – then the beach." He said firmly he informed her and Kagome giggled as she tottered after him.

"As you wish." She chortled happily.

AN: See ya!


	12. Midnight Disturbances

****

Notes: Wow… a lot of people didn't know what the mile high club is. I'm shocked! Well… only a little, but don't worry, that'll be explained later for those poor ignorant people.

And just a little question: Did Rumiko Takahashi change the main pairing in Inuyasha or something? Because I am seeing a _lot _of Sess/Kag fics around. And I mean _a lot_ a lot. I log onto mediaminer and there's always at least three romances with a Sess/Kag pairing on the top page, and I can't find Inu/Kag anywhere. I must have missed the chapters of the series where Kagome and Inuyasha's brother spoke to each other for more than thirty seconds (I've yet to see them really notice each other). I'm not dissing or anything – in fact I was actually thinking about varying in future fics with other pairings centred on Miroku/Sango and perhaps Kouga/Kag or Sess/Kag… but after seeing so many I can't be bothered anymore. 

Where'd all the Inu/Kag writer's go…?

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 12

Midnight Disturbances

"And what are you doing on my bed?"

Inuyasha blinked open his eyes and slanted a glance towards the bedroom door. Kagome stood in the doorway complete with sunglasses, sun hat, bikini and sarong. Under one arm she carried at least three bags of shopping – while her other hand was employed in pushing up her sunglasses to eye him suspiciously. "What?" he said defensively.

"You know, maybe we should have wished for a proper road or something – we had to _walk _all the way to the shops on the other side of the island – my feet are killing me!" Kagome dumped her bags beside the doorway and padded over to the bed. "I have shopped and shopped and I am tired and exhausted – while you laze around the house like a bum!"

She plopped down onto the bed beside him and they both grinned as the whole mattress beneath them swayed and dipped. They lay there like two happily wallowing hippos. Kagome took her hat off and fanned her face. "I really could get used to this…"

"I already am used to this…" Inuyasha sighed, equally contended, wiggling a bit on the bed to make it sway even more. Kagome giggled and joined in.

Mrs Higurashi paused outside her daughter's door as she passed with a bag of her own shopping. They were both giggling again and she was just curious enough to know what it was.

"Inuyasha – if you keep doing that I'll fall off the bed!"

"Can't have that now, can we?"

The sound of bouncing bed springs increased and Mrs Higurashi rolled her eyes as she wandered off again. She entered the large living area where Souta was sitting on the sofa, wrapped up in a large towel (having just been taking a dip in the pool outside) and watching a program about food on the large cinema-like screen on the wall. He looked up when she came in. "So where's Kagome gone?"

"Playing with the water bed again. With Inuyasha." Mrs Higurashi set down her shopping beside the kitchen counter – the kitchen being in the same room as the living room had baffled her at first. "Where's Grandpa?"

"Sunbathing again." Souta replied, returning his gaze to the Tv.

"Make sure he keeps turning over – knowing him he'll fall asleep and get sunburn." Mrs Higurashi informed him as she trotted off to go change.

That's where she met a problem.

^_^

"How much more joy can you two possibly get from doing this?" Inuyasha grumbled as he squinted up at the cloudless sky.

"You'd be surprised." Kagome said as she dumped another bucket of sand over his arm. "And stop twitching your fingers – you're making the sand fall off!"

"Stop twitching your toes too!" Souta chirped in, dumping his own bucket of sand over Inuyasha's feet and patting it down in an effort to completely bury the Hanyou Wishbringer.

"I'm getting sand in my hair." Inuyasha went on complaining.

"You're enjoying it really." Kagome told him as she shovelled more sand over him – it wasn't in short supply seeing as they were in the middle of a beach full of the stuff. Eventually she dusted off her hands and reached into a bowl beside her. "Open wide."

Inuyasha opened his mouth and she popped a grape in, patting his head teasingly as he chewed happily.

"If people came back as animals in the next life – what do you think you would be?" Souta directed a question at Kagome.

"Mm…" she looked into space thoughtfully. "I'd definitely come back as a tiger."

The two boys slanted odd looks at her. Inuyasha rolled his head towards her. "Implying what?"

"Well… top of the food chain. Can't beat that can you?" she patted down the sand on his stomach. "Nice glossy fur… graceful as a feline… better than being some dumb caterpillar I suppose."

"I'd be a Gorilla." Souta said assuredly. "Big, hairy and with a forehead that could keep the rain off my feet."

"And the difference from how you look now?" Kagome quipped and laughed when he flicked sand at her.

"What would I be?" Inuyasha wondered aloud.

"Vulture." Both Souta and Kagome said in unison and blinked innocently at him when he looked at them rather indignantly.

"Well that's not nice…"

"Hey Souta, I think you might be getting a little sunburnt there." Kagome pointed out, eyeing his shoulders.

"Oh yeah…" he noted this as well. "Back in a minute."

The younger sibling hopped to his feet and began trotting off up the beach towards the villa to get more sun cream. Kagome watched him for a moment before looking back at Inuyasha – whose hand had snuck out while her head was turned, heading for the bowl of grapes by her knee. She slapped it away playfully and moved the bowl out of reach. "Are you always that sneaky?" she asked rhetorically.

Inuyasha suddenly stiffened and stared at her. Her smile slid slightly as she saw his reproachful look and sat back slightly. "What?" she asked quietly.

Without a word, he stood, shook the sand out of his clothes and hair and started back towards the villa on the slope. Kagome gaped after him in shock. What on _earth_ had brought around that reaction…?

"Something I said…?" she wondered softly to herself.

^_^

Of all the things she could have said… of all the ways she could have said it. Of all the smiles she could have _used _to say it! She'd chosen to speak exactly the same way as Kikyo had…

Inuyasha ran two hands over his face as he finally dropped down from the roof of the villa and moved past the veranda and the pool and flopped down on the grassy verge over looking the beach where the sand met the rocky earth above.

Sometimes it was like that… sometimes Kagome would tilt her head a certain way or move a certain way… only tiny subtle things that caught his attention. One time all she'd done was stand out of her chair from her desk and turn as she did so, a tired look creeping over her face… just that simple motion had reminded him so strongly of how Kikyo used to move. Their similarity was spooky in their appearance… and granted, Kikyo held herself a lot different than Kagome did… but when she'd looked down at him with that teasing smile and said those stupid words… he just hadn't been able to ignore it… and he hadn't been able to hide his reaction either.

Now Inuyasha wasn't one to go off and cry like a little boy when he was reminded of painful things… and he wasn't one to explode and shout at Kagome for provoking the memories, it wasn't her fault. So instead he just took himself off to brood quietly… and sulk like a pregnant hamster.

Behind him he could hear the family sitting down to dinner inside the living area of the villa. The clatter of cutlery and plates moving around was just background noise.

"Isn't Inuyasha joining us?" he heard Mrs Higurashi ask her daughter.

Kagome mumbled a response he didn't catch (thanks to double glazing glass doors he hadn't quite mastered yet). But really he didn't care… he was too lost within his own thoughts that he stopped registering their voices and stopped seeing the beach, even though he continued to stare at it blankly.

It had been that one time… to him it only seemed a few months ago… but it must have been fifty years at least to the rest of the world. He hadn't been getting on Kikyo's good side… after having brought her to that ratty old house, taking away her singing voice and wasting one useless wish on the ability to play the piano. It didn't surprise him. He'd never really gotten along with many of his masters. He came, he conquered, he messed up wishes, then he went back to sleep until the next bumbling moron stumbled across him.

But at this particular time, his master had been making him uncomfortable. He knew she should have hated him. Should have been shouting and throwing a wobbly over his incompetence. Most people did. But Kikyo have been different.

Of course, at first she'd been mad at him, but rather quickly she'd settled down and not bothered him. She didn't make anymore wishes, but she didn't seem to hate him. Every time she saw him, at least once a day, she used to watch him with those deep, intelligent but sad eyes. Pity was one thing he couldn't stand… and he knew that she was looking at him with complete pity and that had infuriated him.

So then he'd avoided her.

One evening – when the plumbing had been at its worst and Mr Kikyo's Father was being too lazy to fix it or even call someone to fix it, and when Inuyasha's stomach had also been getting the better of him – he'd gone down to the kitchen to grab something to eat. He was forced to wade through a horrible slick layer of water on the kitchen floor on his way to the cupboard where they kept the food rations…

So when Kikyo had tapped his shoulder, startling the living daylights out of him, he'd slipped on the slick floor and fallen flat on his back. Apparently it had been quite funny, well, to Kikyo at least. He remembered he'd scowled angrily as she'd knelt down beside him with one of her very rare, but beautiful smiles. She'd looked at him teasingly and tilted her head.

"Are you always that sneaky?" she'd asked rhetorically.

Inuyasha's shoulders slumped sadly as he attempted to push thoughts of Kikyo away. That had been the night when her smile had faded and she'd given him _that _look again. Then he'd realised at last that it wasn't pity. It was understanding.

She'd understood his loneliness, sadness and his pent-up anger perfectly. Because she felt exactly the same way.

Two people who couldn't be more opposite had somehow found something so deeply in common that it had shaken them both a little. There had been no more arguments after that. They rarely talked. More often than not he found he could sit quietly in her company and feel contented.

An attachment was linking him to her… and not soon after he'd found himself dreading her next wishes. He'd prayed that she never made another one… or else he'd have to leave her. He'd get a new master who was oblivious like the rest and he would lose the one person in the world who had understood him… accepted him…

She'd wished to find love…

Onigumo had stepped into the picture, and Inuyasha was very acutely aware that if he didn't back off of Kikyo, it was not going to end prettily for himself. Yes, even at that time he'd been a selfish ass. He still was. He'd known that to get attached would only bring about more pain in the end, so he'd tried to sever their bond. Only it hadn't really worked.

With Onigumo pressing in on Kikyo, demanding her attention, pursuing her like the filthy little pervert he was… she'd been upset. She'd wanted Inuyasha to help. He vividly remembered the morning she'd come to him and said that she'd only wished to find Inuyasha's love… so they could share it.

But he'd turned his back on her, afraid of the pain he would receive. He hadn't been ready.

And… he'd killed her.

His ears perked up to the sound of the screen door sliding open behind him. Kagome's soft footsteps on the veranda approached and he could smell the alcohol and fruit of the pudding she was carrying out with her. He didn't bother looking up as she came to a stop directly beside him. Out of the corner of his eye he could see her bare legs.

After a moment she crouched and set a bowl down between them. "I thought you might be hungry." She said awkwardly. It was obvious that she was still upset about his earlier reaction to her… he didn't care.

When she got no reply she tried again. "It's fruit salad… it's nice… it's got bananas and strawberries and kiwi fruit… though I wouldn't touch those things with a barge pole." She told him quietly, no humour lilting her voice, though he could hear her nervous smile in her voice. 

"No thanks. I'm not hungry." A bit of a lie, but he really didn't feel like humouring her. God… he really was still a total ass wasn't he?

She seemed to be hesitating to leave. The winds changed direction and he caught the subtle aroma of the girl beside him. No way in hell did he know what she smelt of, all he knew was that she smelt soft and nice. Different from Kikyo. Somehow that gave him the strength and resolve to turn and look her in the eye without flinching. "Why don't you just order me to tell you what's on my mind. I'd have no choice but to tell you then."

Her expression had been open and curious until his last few words… her eyebrows drew downwards and she scowled. "You _always_ have a choice." She said curtly, before standing up in a huff and marching back to the house, leaving the bowl on the ground beside him.

Inuyasha waited till he heard the screen door click shut… or more like slam shut angrily, before picking up the bowl and chucking the contents away with a sweep of his arm. The fruit scattered in the sand below and he scowled at the mess before tossing the bowl behind him. It was plastic, so it bounced happily and rolled to a stop a safe distance away.

He didn't understand his anger towards Kagome. It was in no way her fault… she didn't understand.

It slowly dawned on him and he felt miserable all over again as he flopped sideways and lay sprawled horizontally, picking absently at the itchy bandage covering his burns.

That was just it, wasn't it? After seeing Kagome look down at him with that teasing smile and spoken the words that Kikyo had spoken… he'd realised that if things continued then history would repeat itself. But why? Why would he share a bond with Kagome? She didn't understand him the way Kikyo had done? She didn't know what it was like to suffer unbearable loneliness and regret and sadness…

She wasn't Kikyo. She was just another random master that would pass by. He forced a mental laugh. In a few years he'd be looking back and straining to remember her name, right? She didn't matter…

She didn't understand… but it was best that it just stayed that way…

^_^

Kagome tossed in her bed, trying to escape the unbearable heat and itchy sheets. Normally she'd be counting the ceiling tiles by now, but she could see anything beyond the mosquito net that surrounded her bed.

She was hot, sweaty and oh so very thirsty. She swiped a hand across her brow, pushing back the annoying bangs of hair that clung to her face. Who needed hair… maybe she'd try going bald – at least it wouldn't itch her face and neck so much. She blew out a deep sigh as she pulled at her thin pyjama top, trying to escape some of the heat.

She'd long since kicked the covers off of her body, and not so long ago she had peeled back the sheets that had covered the mattress… the cool water inside said mattress was a welcome relief, but it did little to help her discomfort.

So in the end she had untangled her bare legs from the rumpled blankets and ducked out of the mosquito net to go find something cold to drink… or dump over her head. As she padded quietly out of her room towards the kitchen, she plucked a hair toggle from a chest of drawers and used it to tie her hair back, keeping it out of her face.

She clanged around the kitchen as quietly as possible (despite her temptation she slam drawers and smash glasses just for the sake of creating a racket – just to enjoy her sense of hearing again). She found a tray ice cubes and dumped half of them in her glass of water… the rest she held against her neck until she couldn't take the cold anymore.

Kagome downed the water with three gulps and sighed happily as she wiped her mouth, setting the glass down quietly on the kitchen counter.

Back to bed then.

She turned and was about to head back the way she'd come… only, she just spotted Inuyasha stretched out on the living room sofa, sound asleep. She stopped dead and barely allowed herself to breathe in fear of stirring him. 

Was he really asleep? She'd never really known him to catch forty winks… in truth she'd never really thought about. She assumed he always went back into his bottle if he wasn't needed… did Wishbringers really sleep like normal people.

"Inuyasha?" she called ever so softly.

His breathing remained even and steady, deep and quiet… the foot that hung off the sofa twitched every now and then as he dreamed.

Kagome quietly made her way forward, approaching him cautiously. She knew he was upset at her for some reason or another… if she woke him would he still be mad?

"Don't…"

Kagome froze in her tracks, scared he'd woken and seen her coming. But he only shifting in his sleep and rolled his head towards the back of the sofa. "Please don't…" he muttered thickly.

He made some snuffling noises and then began to snore very gently. Kagome waited until she was sure he was sleeping soundly again before inching forward some more until her knees bumped the edge of the sofa near his shoulder. Looking at him this closely… yes… he was asleep wasn't he?

Somehow he didn't look that angelic. She'd been told plenty of times that hard nuts like Inuyasha often slept with baby faces… Nope… Inuyasha slept with a normal face. His brow crinkled as he came across something in a dream… his lips moved slightly as if muttering something silently…

She couldn't resist. He may not have been angelic, but he sure looked more docile and defenceless than he usually did. Kagome knelt down beside the sofa and reached out to trace a feather like touch along the edge of his jaw with a finger. He didn't seem to notice. He kept on scowling at whatever it was he was dreaming about. So perhaps she grew a little bolder as she leaned in closer and ran the same finger up to his ear and traced its outline.

This time she got a reaction. The ear twitched ever so slightly. And then he'd grabbed her hand and yanked it away almost violently.

Kagome nearly yelped in pain and surprise, afraid that she'd just pissed him off even more than before. But when she locked gazes with him, she realised something was not quite right. He was looking at her… but it was like he was looking right through her without seeing the girl kneeling there.

Her mouth worked, trying to fish out some decent kind of apology before he twisted her arm off.

But before she managed to come up with something, she saw him quickly sit up, sliding into a position direction before her, perched on the edge of the seat. She blinked in surprise, wondering what he was about to do, when he suddenly jerked her forward and caught her in a _tight_, tight embrace.

She was too stunned to even move.

Inuyasha's hands smoothed down her sticky back and over her ponytail at the back of her head. He clenched his arms, crushing her closer, while Kagome found her face pressed right up against the juncture of his neck and shoulder, shoulders hunched in rigid shock.

"Um… Inuyasha…?" she mumbled against his white shirt.

"I'm so sorry…" he whispered into her hair. "How can you ever forgive me?"

Ah! He was apologising for his earlier behaviour. About damn time too. She swallowed past the nervous lump in her throat and tried to calm her erratic heart beat. "It's ok, no harm done." She piped cheerfully.

"But I killed you…"

"You… did… what…?" she blinked rapidly. Now she was losing track of the conversation. Was he even awake here? She tried to wriggle out of his arms, but they were locked around her too tightly, and his thighs on either side of her blocked her escape. "What are you talking about?"

"I pushed you away because I was scared, I was so selfish… I wanted to tell you that… but it was too late… Kikyo… god I killed you… I can't even forgive myself."

Kagome stared at the white material before her eyes… what had he said? 

"I wanted to love you back, Kikyo, I really did…" he whispered in what she thought sounded more like fear than anything else. "I turned my back on you because I was a coward… and now I've lost you… please forgive me… please…?"

Kagome didn't move or say a word. She closed her eyes and tried to block out his voice.

"Kikyo…?"

Suddenly her arms were moving of their own accord. They wound around his chest tightly and locked around his back. She buried her face completely and tried not to hate herself for doing it. "I forgive you Inuyasha… it wasn't your fault. It was never your fault."

"But I-"

"I forgive you." She cut him off shortly. "That's all the matters isn't it?" she tried to keep the bitterness out of her tone when she added. "At least I know you felt the same… I love you too."

At some point during her condolences, he'd slumped against her completely, snoring gently once more as his arms loosened. For a moment Kagome was reluctant to let him go. For just a few blessed moments it felt so nice and right to hold a warm, living body in her arms. She inhaled his sweet, dusky smell deeply and toyed with the idea of how warm and pleasant it was to be that close to someone… she wished it happened more often in her life than it actually did.

But she was forced back to the real world when she realised _who _exactly was in her arms. And that… perhaps… his heart belonged to someone else.

Still… she thought as she let him back down gently on the settee… it would be nice to have a boyfriend to hold like that. Though in no way would her boyfriend look like Inuyasha… or act like Inuyasha…

After all, Inuyasha was a jerk. A horrible, nasty, short-tempered little two year old stuck in the body of a much older and gorgeous young man. He got mad at her for no reason and laughed at her misery (she wasn't going to forget that). But…

Her eyes softened as she looked down at him. He may have been a nasty, conceited person… but he was also in a lot of pain, and even Kagome wasn't so heartless as to step on that.

After a few minutes simply watching him sleep she reached out and shook his shoulder roughly. "Inuyasha – Inuyasha wake up!"

He sucked in a sharp breath and automatically raised an arm to block her shaking his shoulder. He blinked blearily until he found her form and squinted up at her. "Wha… Kagome? What time izzit…?"

"Two o'clock." She answered. "You're going to get bitten to death by bugs if you stay out here."

"Wha…?" he was still trying to catch his bearings. It seemed he'd been in a very deep sleep.

"Come on, sleepy head." She pulled on his arm and coaxed him off he sofa. "You're already covered in bites, let's get you to bed."

"'Kay…" he mumbled sleepily as he automatically followed her lead, eyes closed the whole way. Boy… he was putting a lot of faith in her not to walk him into the wall.

"Oops!" Kagome squeaked as she walked him into a wall. "Didn't see that coming – nevermind." She redirected him through her bedroom door and shut it behind them. "Come on." She caught his limp wrist and pulled him over to the bed. She drew the netting back and directed him to the end. "You can sleep there, no bugs in here."

He muttered something unintelligible as he flopped down on the bunched up blankets and sheets at the end of her bed. Within seconds he was asleep, and Kagome was assured of his safety from the biting insects. Perhaps that wasn't the real reason she wanted him in here… perhaps she just wanted to look out for him… him being so weak and kittenish all of a sudden.

She curled up at the other end of the bed with the pillows, a good metre between the two of them so in no way was it scandalous or daring.

For some reason she got the best night of sleep she'd seen in a while after that ordeal.

^_^

"Morning all!" Kagome greeted the family the next morning as she bounced out of her room.

"Funny…" Souta said as he chewed his toast slowly. "Inuyasha jumped out of that door this morning too." He skewed a suggestive look at Inuyasha across the breakfast table.

The boy just shrugged. "Don't look at me, I don't understand it either."

Kagome swept up to the table and grabbed a slice of toast from Souta's plate, ignoring his indignant squeak of outrage. "Inuyasha, can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure." He crunched on his cereal whilst keep his eyes trained on the kiddie cartoons being shown on the Tv across the room. "Shoot."

Kagome sighed impatiently. "Alone? With privacy?" she raised an eyebrow. He looked at her and raised one right back.

"This hasn't got anything to do with the mile high club has it?" he queried.

"What's the mile high club?" Souta chirped.

Mrs Higurashi looked up from the sink. "Where'd you learn about that?" she asked with a frown.

"Oh – because Inuyasha and Kagome said that they-"

"Watched a documentary on it!" Kagome leapt to the rescue… but boy had that been a lame rescue. "Yes… we uh… yeah…"

Souta was giving her an incredulous look while Inuyasha still looked as clueless as ever. Well… since he couldn't ask Kagome anymore, he turned to Mrs Higurashi. "So what _is _the mile high club thingy?" he asked the woman.

"Well… uh…" she suddenly got very flustered. "It's when… mummies and daddies who love each other very much… sort of… express that love… one mile above sea level… which is usually in the bathroom of a plane or… something… see?"

Souta blinked. "I don't get it…"

"Neither do I." Inuyasha added.

"Good!" Kagome yanked Inuyasha's sleeve and dragged him from the table. "Now I need to talk to you – come outside."

Outside, Grandpa was sunbathing again, so Kagome dragged Inuyasha off down the beach. "Let's walk and talk." She suggested as she pulled him along. He didn't protest much. Eventually she let go of his sleeve and wrung her hands together. "Ok… ok… there's something I think I should know… I think I need to know something about you and…"

She stopped when she heard a distinct crunching noise behind her. She whipped around and glared so hard that Inuyasha froze mid-chew. In his hand was a packet of digestive biscuits he'd swiped from the kitchen on his way out. "What?" he said defensively.

"Are you listening to me? This is important!" she hissed.

"I'm listening!" he popped another biscuit in his mouth. "Well aren't we going to walk and talk?"

"Right…" she started off walking down the sand towards the water's edge, aware that Inuyasha trailed after her, keeping pace. "I want to know about your relationship to Kikyo."

His footsteps stopped behind her, but she kept going, afraid that if she saw his face she might not have the courage to continue. So instead she carried on walking until she came to a rocky platform that emerged out of the sand, just where the sea tides met the land. She sat down and looked down at the ground… somehow she couldn't face him.

"Why did you want to know that?" he asked quietly.

"I just need to know." She said truthfully. "What it is you felt for her… what she felt for you."

"Is that an order?" he approached and stood a few feet away from where she sat.

"It's a request." She said firmly. "You don't have to tell me… but I hoped you would. Please…"

For a long time he didn't speak, or move for that matter. Kagome wondered that if she looked up she might find he had turned to stone. Her gaze lingered on his bare feet for a moment, but that was as far as she could go, and she had to avert her eyes again.

"You wouldn't understand." He said simply.

Kagome sighed irritably. "Tell me anyway and I'll try to, ok? I'm not just a naïve little girl you know."

"Yes you are." He said sharply.

Kagome managed to shoot him a glare full in the face.

"But…" he added softly. "That's good."

He was right, she didn't understand at all. "How well did you know Kikyo?"

"Better than anyone else knew her." He shrugged and moved to sit down on the rocks beside her. Kagome edged away discreetly. "And vice versa."

Kagome tried to casually run a hand through her hair, but she had a feeling it only conveyed her anxiousness. She didn't understand why she was so nervous… but for some reason she couldn't help it. "Did she love you?" she asked bluntly. Not wanting to beat around the bush. She just wanted to learn his feelings towards the dead woman, and then see if she could put it behind her.

"I think so. She told me once…" he said quietly.

Kagome smiled slightly. "Did you love her?"

"No."

Kagome flinched and looked across at him in surprise. He was watching the moving waves instead though. "What?"

"I wouldn't let myself. The potential was there but I turned my back on her and tried to ignore it all. I was afraid that it would eventually hurt me worse than anything else I've endured, so I shied away. It hurt her more than it hurt me… and when she died…" he took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. "At least it didn't hurt as much as it would have if I'd been in love with her."

Now Kagome really was lost. "But… how can loving someone cause you pain? Love is good – it's good to share yourself with someone."

"Not me." He shook his head with a rueful smile. "I'm special."

Kagome frowned with thought as she tried to figure it out. "I don't… I don't understand why you would refuse to love her… even though you both wanted to…" Was it even possible to avoid falling in love? In Kagome's limited experience, crushes and love interests just happened, you couldn't stop them. 

"I told you, you wouldn't understand." He said patronisingly. "Want a biscuit?"

"Because you're not explaining very well." She retorted hotly, taking a biscuit nonetheless and biting off half. "Maybe I have too naïve… so say it slower."

He rolled his eyes and seemed to think about it for a moment before taking a biscuit of his own and breaking it in half. "See this little half here?" he held it up for her to see as he tossed the other half away. "This is me. I used to be whole, maybe, but all this loneliness and regret and anger and hatred and depression and so on has been nibbling away at me."

Kagome stared at him with wide eyes.

"I'm only half a heart… half a person. I have no reason to exist other than to bring misery to other people. This is me." He dangled the biscuit half before her… then took another whole biscuit and broke it in half. Once more he kept one half and threw away the other. "And this is Kikyo."

"I see the resemblance." Kagome said dryly, watching with a sort of grim fascination.

"Well. Kikyo's had a rough life too. She's got all this depression and loneliness eating away at her soul." Inuyasha chortled breezily as he brought the two halves of two different biscuits together. "And see – we find each other and we make one whole biscuit together. Don't we look so happy? But we still have this big crack between us – but if you use a special cookie dough called 'love' you can seal up the crack and make a whole biscuit like this!" he chucked the two halves away and brought out a whole, unmarred biscuit. "We'd be in perfect harmony and balance. Rely on each other like we are two combined souls."

Kagome stared at the biscuit flatly.

"But… oh dear…" he made a tutting noise. "The Inuyasha half of this biscuit will be leaving one day – and he can't take the Kikyo half with him so…" he broke the biscuit in two, rather carelessly and it completely shattered into several different pieces. "That is how love can hurt you more than you realise. It was safe not to make any kind of bond between us that would shatter us both."

He picked up two halves of a biscuit he'd been using before. "So when Inuyasha and Kikyo meet, Inuyasha tries very hard not to fall in love… so that in the end… the only broken cookie will be this one." He crunched up Kikyo's half, and set down his own half down on the rock, unharmed and in tact… though still only half. "Inuyasha's back to being Inuyasha. And that's the way it will stay." He cocked his head. "Do you understand now…?"

Kagome was about to nod… but slowly shook her head instead. "I guess I'm too young and naïve."

"And don't let anyone change that."

Kagome glanced up at him, but he was already up and stalking away. She watched him storm… realising that he must have been using a lot of control not to snap out at her during all that.

She looked back down at all the crumbled biscuit remains around the rock, and in the midst of it – Inuyasha's cookie half remained… alone, and jumbled up in so many crumbs of the other biscuits.

Kagome glanced down to the biscuit half in her half that she had been eating. Slowly… she lowered is down and lay it down next to Inuyasha's. She stared the two halves for a moment, envisioning one whole biscuit there.

With a defeated sigh she swiped her hand out and knocked the crumbled remains of all the cookies away and turned to look out to sea, watching where the horizon met the waters.

This was worse than she'd thought…

^_^

"Inuyasha!"

He turned as he entered the house and spotted Mrs Higurashi beckoning him. "I need some help moving boxes." She told him. "They're too heavy for me."

For a moment he felt like refusing… but he could never really say no to a middle-aged woman that someone called a Mom. Don't ask. "Sure." He shrugged indifferently and headed after her.

"In the pantry." She told him as she walked into the small, dimly lit back room where all the food and equipment was stored for holiday makers. She shut the door as Inuyasha followed her inside and pointed across the small room. "They're over there, against that wall."

He turned and looked to see where she was pointing. He didn't see any boxes. "What did you want moving aga-"

He was abruptly cut off as something was shoved right though his back and out of his chest. He saw it before he felt it. He looked down and gently touched a hand to the rusty metal spike that had run him through. "Oh…" he turned unsteadily to find Mrs Higurashi watching him smugly, hands fisted against her hips in an arrogant pose.

"It's you…" Inuyasha muttered before the lights went out completely.

AN: There you go – extra long chapter to make up for the long gap of time since the last update ^_^


	13. Dog's Body

****

Author's Notes: Oh no! I checked the dictionary that sits on my desk and it says that Realise is actually spelt as Realize! But it also spells Colour with a U so it's not an American dictionary, seeing as how it was printed in Wrotham (England).

I'm thinking perhaps the government changed the spellings of a few words and forgot to tell us… or I'm thinking that I'm just very confused here…

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 13

Dog's Body

The smell of salty sea air was the first thing that struck Inuyasha when he began to wake up. He could hear the gentle regular sigh of waves lapping against a beach, and when he opened his eyes he found himself lying on his side on the sand, staring out at the crystal clear waters a few short feet away. The white sand around him was the only other thing that he saw.

Until Kagome's leg stepped into view, blocking his vision of the sea. He knew it was Kagome's leg – he recognised the shape of her ankle… slim and dainty, but sturdy looking. And sure enough, when she crouched down he found himself looking into Kagome's face.

Though she looked more like Kikyo than ever… her eyes were slightly dull and her lips weren't smiling. In fact he was almost certain that the face belonged to Kikyo, but the hair and body belonged to Kagome.

Of course, it could only be Naraku.

"So you thought flying away across the ocean would lose me?" he said in Kagome's voice. "I think I overestimated your intelligence, Inuyasha. You should know that I've been watching you and this family for every second for every day since I was born. I saw what you planned and I followed you here. Did you really think you could escape your punishment?"

"Oh naff off…" Inuyasha slurred dully. If he could move, he would have slugged the abomination around the head – regardless of the fact it would feel like he was hitting Kagome. "Where am I?"

"You're in a bad position to make demands like that." Naraku said haughtily. "But I was going to tell you anyway. We're about half a mile away from the little holiday home. And about a mile away from any other building. So… you can scream and scream but no one will hear you here."

Inuyasha lifted his head a little to look around. All he saw was an endless beach, backed up by a tropical looking forest and fronted by an endless sea. Wonderful…

"One question…" Inuyasha turned his head back to look at Naraku. "How the hell did you knock me out?"

He laughed. "Well, thanks to you, I now have the knowledge of a thousand Youkai and one human inside my brain." He tapped the side of Kagome's head with a feminine finger. "And even though the human was worth shit in the wisdom department, there were several rather useful pots of knowledge in the mass. Some even knew what Wishbringers were. Some Youkai were so old that they remembered a time when myths and rumours of your kind were flying around like bees – when everyone wanted to get their grubby hands on a 'Genie'. And some, not very many though, knew certain weaknesses of the Wishbringers' corporeal form."

Inuyasha sighed heavily and willed his eyes shut with a groan. "Dammit…"

"So I know that whilst technically you can't kill a Wishbringer with a knife or a gun or rusty metal spikes, you can at least render them useless if you strike their core." Naraku reached out and tickled a hand down Inuyasha's chest to the point below where his ribs joined – also the point where a rather large spike protruded through his body. "The solar plexus is a Wishbringers Achilles heal. Pierce it and they're down for the count… until I remove the spike that is."

Wow… even Inuyasha hadn't known all that crap. He'd been filled in about a lot of the limitations and weaknesses of a Wishbringer by the one who made him… except the guy seemed to have mentioned the thing about the solar plexus. Perhaps Inuyasha would have been more careful about that if he'd known. "You're not going to remove the spike are you?" Inuyasha guessed wildly.

"No."

"Can't blame a girl for trying." Inuyasha attempted to sit up… but still… for some reason he couldn't move. "So what do you plan to do with me? You can't kill me. You just said so yourself."

"Of course I can kill you." Naraku scoffed.

"But you just said-"

"A master can wish for anything he wants. Even the death and destruction of his little Wishbringer." Naraku smiled slowly. "But you already knew that."

Slow, cold horror crept up Inuyasha's spine as his words sank in with realisation. It made the fine hairs on the back of his neck bristle and his scalp to crawl. "You're bluffing…"

Naraku gave a small laugh and sat back. "I'd be ashamed if I were you. To get stuck inside this." He pulled a familiar looking plastic bottle from the pocket of his baby blue coloured jacket.

"How did you get that?!" Inuyasha raged angrily.

"Well, a housewife has a job to do – and that's to clean her daughter's room and pick up the litter she leaves around so carelessly." Naraku smirked and bopped Inuyasha on the head with it. "I found it in her underwear drawer… heh… I thought about breaking it… but it kept bouncing. And then I thought that maybe I could have my fun with it in a different way."

He began to unscrew the top. Inuyasha began to panic. "No! Don't!" 

Naraku feigned a shocked little gasp as the lid dropped off and plopped into the white sand between them. Nothing much appeared to happen. "Well… I'm a little disappointed. I was expecting confetti and flashing lights to congratulate me on becoming the sixty fourth master of the Wishbringer Inuyasha." He shrugged and picked up the bottle cap to screw it back on. "Oh well. It can't be helped."

"Not again…" Inuyasha groaned as his head dropped balefully against the sand. It was happening all over again… history was just moving in one big circle. His finer senses were re-tuning themselves like they often did when a new master was assigned. The sixth sense that had alerted him of Onigumo's presence was now alerting him of Naraku's. For the first time he became aware of Naraku's life force… and realised just how bloody strong he was… the freak was just toying with him in reality. And he also became aware of a few of Naraku's deepest desires…

Needless to say they made him shudder. Most of them were about Kikyo, and/or Kagome. Inuyasha saw… or more like felt… all the nasty rather lewd things he wanted to do to Kagome… and somewhere near the bottom of that list – his desire to kill Inuyasha, slowly and full of torture.

"They say that Wishbringers can sense the emotions and unspoken wishes of their master." Naraku said evenly. "Is it true?"

"I didn't have to be able to be an empath to know that you're a sick bastard." Inuyasha said weakly. He really wished that he didn't have to see Naraku's desires, they were so twisted and corrupt that it made even Inuyasha a little queasy. Kagome's desires involved things like fluffy baby rabbits and ponies. The difference was explicit.

"You don't have to fill me in on the rules of wishes." Naraku told him with a lofty wave of the hand. "I know it all already. Ten wishes. No reviving dead people. No conjuring. No setting you free – but I doubt there's any danger of that happening. So… what shall I spend my first wish on, eh?"

Inuyasha's stomach did a flip-flop… he screwed his eyes shut and tried to will himself to disappear… to try and relocate himself elsewhere – somewhere with Kagome. But with a metal shaft through his core, he wasn't going anywhere.

"Oh don't look so worried!" Naraku scolded him in a very good impression of Kagome's giggly voice. "I'm not going to wish to rape Kagome. I could do that just as easily on my own."

"Leave Kagome out of this you asshole!" Inuyasha struggled violently to try and sit up and smack him hard… but his whole skeleton seemed to be locked up and rigid. "She's an innocent! She doesn't deserve all this!"

"Then we'll just have to corrupt her won't we?" Naraku said simply. "You and me together… You've already introduced her into our dangerous little reality. And I will show her how dangerous it can be."

He traced a hand luxuriously up his own leg… up Kagome's leg and gave a little sigh of appreciation. "So beautiful… so pure… though it's a hundred times better to touch the real thing." He smirked at Inuyasha. "You can't imagine the thrills I got when I touched her that one time… held her hot little body against mine… or was it yours?"

"Mother fucker."

"How rude." Naraku snapped a glare on him. "I could just wish you to turn you into a spoon right now."

Inuyasha was beginning to break out into a nervous sweat.

"Anyway… I don't think I'll kill you just yet. I'll save that till last." A slow nasty smile spread across his face, which looked severely out of place on Kagome's appearance. "Yes… I know… I think I shall make you my lap dog first and foremost. I can't think of a better blow to your pride… you're gonna hate this…"

^_^

"Where'd everyone go?" Kagome asked as she stepped in through the open screen doors and looked around the quiet house. Souta was all but pressed up against the huge plasma screen Tv as he watched more cartoons.

"Grandpa went out to buy more kiwi fruit. He likes it." Souta said without bothering to grace her with a glance.

"Urgh." She shuddered. She hated kiwi fruit. "Did Mom and Inuyasha go with him then?"

"Uh…" Souta rolled his eyes upwards to think. "Don't remember."

"Well, you're not very useful." Kagome huffed and went to go take a look around for Inuyasha and her mother. She checked the bedrooms, the cupboards, the cellar and the pantry, but found nothing out of the ordinary. That's when she began to worry.

Inuyasha's disappearance didn't worry her so much, after all, it wasn't so strange for him to disappear off the face of the earth like some kind of phantom. Because that was exactly what he was. However, her mother didn't go missing like that…

"Mom?!" Kagome yelled as she went outside again and circled the house. "Mom?! Inuyasha?!"

"Relax, Kagome." Souta called out of the house to her when she arrived back on the veranda. "They've probably just gone shopping together."

"Inuyasha doesn't shop." Kagome called back bluntly and chewed her lip as she scanned the beach below her for some sign of life.

Nothing…

"Where are they…?" She wondered aloud to herself… perhaps Inuyasha was still locking himself away in his sacred coke bottle, probably still angry about all that had been said earlier… but where was her mother?

Maybe she'd gone shopping… or had gone with Grandpa at least. There was probably nothing to worry about, but wouldn't she have left a note?

Kagome's thought processes stopped as her sharp gaze fell on a movement down on the beach. She stopped and stared, trying to see better, but it was a long way away. Though from what she could tell, there was some kind of animal trotting down from the very end of the beach, getting closer.

Out of mere curiosity she stepped off the veranda and took a few steps down the beaten path to the beach. He held a hand over her eyes to shade them from the sun and squinted.

It was a lion!

Kagome nearly shrieked and ran back inside to hide under the bed when she realised something valid. Lions weren't black. Or were they? Kagome was never much of a natural history expert, but she had the feeling her previous assumption was wrong. She took a few more steps down the path and peered out again. It was large, walked on four legs and was either black of navy blue… probably black in which case. It quite steadily mooched along the sand with its head to the ground like a small grazing horse.

Was it a horse?

No, it was too hairy…

Whatever it was stopped in its tracks and suddenly lifted its head – looking directly in her direction. Then it barked and started to charge straight for her.

Kagome froze and stared in horror. There was a massive black dog running at her – what did she do?!

At a loss of options, she screamed, turned, and then ran for dear life back towards the house. She was confident she'd be able to make it inside and lock all the doors and windows before that _thing _caught up with her, so she was particularly surprised (and horrified) when the large dog overshot her and screeched to a halt, blocking her path to the house.

Kagome didn't waste any time scrambling to turn and rabbit off in the direction of the beach again. She'd just made it onto the sand when she realised it was still chasing her. "Leave me alone you big mutt!"

It only barked more angrily at her.

Luck happened to be taking a strike against her that day and she gave a squeak as she tripped and skidded to a halt using her face in the sand. Instantly she threw her arms over her head and pressed herself down. "Don't eat me!" she yelled in a panicky voice.

The dog arrived beside her, she heard its heavy breathing and smelt the distinct smell of a salty wet dog arrive with it. She waited for it to sink its teeth into her or maul her to death in some way, but all it did was nudge her with its muzzle, trying to roll her over. Kagome, not really wanting to expose her belly, remained where she was.

For a while she held herself down tighter until she realised that it wasn't attacking her. Instead it was pushing and prodding at her quietly as it padded around her with hasty steps. She slowly pushed herself up using her arms and came nose to snout with the biggest dog she'd ever seen. She almost fainted then and there. She'd thought it had been big before… but crouched on the ground on her hands and knees she found herself craning her neck to look up at it. It was a lot bigger than she was, but strangely enough, she didn't feel so scared now. But only because it hadn't eaten her.

"Whoa…" she breathed as she tried to calm her heart and nerves. "You're big…"

She scooted back slightly, only to have it take a step after her. She froze and stared at it, before shuffling back a metre or so. Two strides and it caught up with her. Confusion set in. "What?" she asked loudly. "What do you want from me? Food?!"

The dog just watched her… in a way that made her think it was almost trying to tell her something. Oh dear… perhaps she'd been watching too many reruns of Lassie. 

"What did you say? Timmy's trapped down the old mine and can't get out? Oh no!" she joked as she got to her feet and brushed down her clothes. "Well now thanks to you I've got sand all up my nose and in my hair and all sorts of unmentionable places." She took a moment to glance around to make sure no one was watching before she untied the back of her bikini top and flapped out the sand for a few moments before tying it up again.

The dog stared shamelessly. She frowned at it, considering the animal. "Did you lose your master or something?" she guessed absently as she shook out her sandy hair.

It lowered it's head, almost miserably.

"I'm looking for someone too." She told it. "And I'm also talking to a dog. So I'm crazy on top of all that."

With a sigh she turned around and headed back to the house, mentally wishing the dog well on its mission to find whoever it belonged to. But she slowly drew to a stop when she heard it padding after her. She frowned down suspiciously at the large creature and folded her arms. "You must be seriously lost…" there weren't any people around for at least a mile other than her family. "I take it you live on this island."

It only carried on watching her with that silently pleading look. "Oh I know…" she suddenly caught. "You want food, don't you?" she was met with no obvious reaction. "Well you ain't getting any! You scared me – so you can go eat a jellyfish for all I care!"

She turned and stalked back to the house, too anxious about her mother and Inuyasha to worry about feeding some stray animals. She was about to head inside when she realised the dog was still on her heels. She turned quickly and spread her arms and legs to block the doorway. "You aren't coming in here! Not with those muddy paws!"

"Who're you talking to?" Souta called, appearing behind her. He peered around her body and spotted the large monster dog. "Cool! It's huge! Can we keep him! Can we name him Inuyasha?!"

"I really don't think Inuyasha would like that…" Kagome said slowly, before remembering herself. "And no we can't keep it! It doesn't belong to us!"

"It's not an it! It's a he!"

"It could be a she for all you know." Kagome shot back. "And it's not coming in here, are you girl?"

"It's a boy!"

"It's a girl!" Kagome shot back. "See all the glossy fur – only a girl could be that clean – boys are messy pigs."

Suddenly a new voice broke into the conflict. "What's that animal doing here?"

The two siblings looked up to see their Grandfather approaching across the veranda, having come around the corner of the house upon hearing the raised voices.

"She followed me – I think it's a stray." Kagome told him, still refusing to budge from the doorway in case it trotted in and left mud prints everywhere.

"Can we keep it?!" Souta begged Grandpa.

"But it probably belongs to someone else." Grandpa reasoned as he strolled forward in his shorts and Hawaiian shirt, and a bag of kiwi fruit under his arm. "That's one fine animal… a Basmalti if I'm correct."

"But Basmalti is a rice, Grandpa." Kagome pointed out.

Grandpa shrugged as he knelt down and scratched the animal between the perky upright ears. "Ah, but this breed is famous for its size – specifically bred for a Queen in Braune. It's origins go back nearly a millennia in that country. She used to keep at least ten of this particular breed of dog – used them to fetch things and hunt and things like that. That's why the Basmalti breed is nicknamed the Lap-Dog."

"You just made that up." Souta accused.

"I did not." Grandpa defended himself. "Very rare breed, very docile and friendly."

The dog growled heavily and all three took a wary step back.

"I think it's hungry." Souta said suddenly. "We can give it a few of the steaks in the fridge!" he ran off to go fetch them.

"Souta – that's our dinner – you can't give him those!" she yelled after him, turning to look after him as she did so. The dog took the opportunity to slip past her pad into the house. "Oh no you don't!" she lunged after the animal and hooked her arms around its neck, attempting to drag it back out the door. It didn't budge, but instead carried on walking deeper into the house as though she wasn't even there.

Eventually she gave up and let it go, flopping on the living room carpet as she released it. "Whatever… I didn't want to stop you anyway." She shouted after the dog as it padded away in its exploration of the house, following some kind of scent trail with its nose close to the ground.

"You seem touchy, Kagome dear," Her Grandpa commented from behind her.

"Yeah well…" she sighed and picked herself up off the floor. "Where's Mom anyway? I've been looking for her but I can't find her or Inuyasha anywhere." She'd also been looking for his bottle but that had turned out to be a fruitless search.

"Maybe they went shopping together."

"I doubt it." Kagome sighed and opened her mouth to voice more of her concern when the black dog began barking loudly. She turned to see what the matter was, only to see it pawing insistently at her mother's bedroom door. "What's the matter?" she went over with Grandpa and ushered the dog out of the way to open the door.

It swung back and they looked in. Nothing was out of place. Kagome looked down at the large canine. "You're weird." She was about to turn and leave them to it when she noticed the dog entering her mother's room. "No – that's a white carpet – you can't walk mud in there you-" 

She cut herself short as she scrambled after it, rounding the corner of the bed as she did so. There was her mother, lying flat out on the floor. Fear shot through her at once and she threw herself past the motionless dog to her mother's side. "Mom!" she shook her shoulders. "Mom – wake up! Mom!"

"What… what…?" Mrs Higurashi stirred gently and rapidly blinked open her eyes. "What's going on?"

With a little help from Kagome she managed to sit up, still a little disorientated. She darted a look from Kagome, to the dog, to Grandpa, to Souta who had just entered with a bag of crisps in hand, and then back to the dog. "What's that dog doing walking mud all over my nice clean carpet?"

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. She was ok… but she'd had her worried for a moment there. "Are you ok, Mom?"

"Yes, yes, I'm ok." she nodded quickly. "I think… well… I was coming in here to get changed, too hot you see, and then I think I must have fainted." She smiled and patted her daughter's hand. "Don't worry, I don't handle the heat well, that's all."

After assuring everyone that she was perfectly fine and dandy, Mrs Higurashi went off to cook supper for everyone as the day began drawing to a close and the sun sunk towards the horizon. Kagome's worry was now focused solely on Inuyasha, now that her mother was found to be safe. She turned irritably to the dog that was still following her around the house. "You wouldn't help me sniff him out would you?"

The dog just watched her.

With a grumble she stalked off outside, locking the dog inside the house as she did so, and went to go sit on the edge of the veranda to watch the sunset. 

It was probably because she'd upset him, and brought up a painful subject for Inuyasha yesterday. He'd never liked talking about Kikyo, or his emotions for that matter. He'd done some analogy with a bunch of biscuits so he could poke fun at it and laugh… but that was just a typical case of covering up some deep seated fear or anger with humour. She nearly have a scoff of sarcasm. Like she'd never done that before in her life time.

The screen door inched open behind her and she heard the click of claws on the veranda.

"Oh boy…" she dropped her head into her hands. "Where the hell did you learn to open screen doors?" she asked sulkily as the dog appeared beside her and sat down. He was distinctly a head higher than her as they sat. She grudgingly reached out a hand and ruffled his shaggy mane of fur.

The dog didn't bother her too much as she went back to her thoughts. Kikyo and Inuyasha… it bothered her more than she'd liked to admit – though she was far from being jealous… it was mostly because she was worried for him. He was obviously beating himself up over having killed her with his own hands… despite how Kagome tried to convince him that it hadn't been his fault. That it had been Kikyo's choice, not his.

"He didn't love her…" Kagome said softly, somehow feeling the need to get things off her chest and into the open air. She needed someone to confide in. Someone who preferably wouldn't talk back and judge it all. The dog would do. She hooked an arm around its shoulders and absently scratched behind one of its ears. "How's that possible? To not love someone if you want to love them?"

She lapsed into silence for a moment. Though she had the ridiculous feeling that the dog beside her was hanging onto her every word. She looked up and smiled weakly at the creature. "I suppose he was just looking for the right someone to come along and make his cookie complete, wasn't he?" she sighed and looked out to where the sun was sinking down so quickly she could almost see it moving as it touched the horizon. "I think he's right. He would have been hurt if he'd loved her. But that still means he's hurt… and he seems to be taking it out on me… do I really look like her? What do you think?" she asked the dog.

It just blinked at her.

"What would you know?" she said hotly. "You're just a dog." She sighed and looked back at the sunset. "It seems like he wants to forget her. Put it behind him and forget the pain, I guess. Well that's just stupid. He thinks I'm too naïve and stupid to know what it's like to grieve." She lowered her head bitterly, almost feeling a prickle of tears. "But I know… that if you care about someone so much, you can't just forget them and the grief. It's just wrong and disrespectful."

The dog shifted uncomfortably beside her. 

"Though I wish he wouldn't feel so guilty about it…" she dropped her hand away from the dog. "It's not his fault. I'm sure Kikyo really would forgive him if she were around."

It was such a tragedy… for Onigumo to come along and mess up Kikyo's life, and Inuyasha's emotions like that. And now Naraku was going to make an even bigger mess of the poor boy. Why couldn't they all just leave him alone? "It's like the whole world is against him." She shook her head and clicked her tongue. "But I guess that's just what they call karma."

A deep growl rumbled in the large dogs chest and she eyed him warily. "You know, for a dog, you don't bark that much. And for a friendly dog, you don't lick people much either."

It blinked more slowly at her. Obviously it didn't think licking was very dignified.

"I dare you to lick my hand." She held it up before his nose. The great beast gave something that sounded suspiciously like a snort before turning away. She shrugged and reclined back on her hands. "Your loss."

The sun was, by now, half hidden into the sea and Kagome rolled her stiff neck to the side to work out the kinks. After a few more minutes of silence she gave a sigh. "I miss Inuyasha… where'd he go?" she muttered. "What if he's still mad at me…?"

She was quite stunned when the dog beside her suddenly slumped onto its front legs and laid its heavy head on her lap. "Ah… see?" she smiled and scratched between its ears affectionately. "You aren't so tough after all. But that still doesn't mean you can live here… we're leaving in a few days and we can't take a dog back home with us on the plane."

Her thoughts dwelled on what would happen when they returned back home and her smile slipped away slightly. Her affectionate scratching slipped into a gentle stroke along the black dog's head. It closed its eyes under her ministrations and went as limp and docile as a dead dog.

"I wonder if Naraku's still waiting for us back there…?" Kagome whispered out of the blue.

The dog's ears perked upright suddenly and she blinked as it lifted its head out of her lap and stood quickly, its eyes and ears tuned forward towards the darkening beach. "What?" she asked. "Do you hear the sheep being rustled, Lassie?"

How sad did she have to be to joke with a dog?

The canine suddenly lopped off a few metres away, searching through the tall grass among the rockery. Kagome watched him with growing curiosity. "What are you doing?"

The dog, strangely enough, didn't reply, and went on snuffling through the grass in search of something she could only guess at. After a moment or two it suddenly came ambling back with a stick between its teeth, dropping it at her feet.

"You want to play fetch?" she asked incredulously. She picked up the stick and regarded it with a sigh. "Alright… as long as I don't have to get up or anything."

Kagome pulled her arm back and tossed it a few metres away. She shrugged and pointed. "Go fetch, girl!"

The dog didn't budge… in fact it seemed to be glaring at her.

Kagome frowned and stood up to go fetch it herself. She drew her arm back and threw it again. The dog still didn't make any move to fetch it back to her. She threw her arms up. "What do you want from me? I thought you wanted to play fetch!"

The dog trotted off again and Kagome waited, stumped, until it came back again a few moments later carrying a slightly large stick. He dropped it at her feet and looked up expectantly. Kagome just shrugged helplessly. "What are we playing here? Fetch Kagome a Stick and See Which One she Stabs you With?"

She picked up the larger stick and threw it. The dog seemed to heave a sigh and walked off in the opposite direction to which she'd thrown in, and came back a minute later with an even larger stick.

"This is ridiculous. It isn't making any sense…" she grumbled as she picked up the stick it was offering to her. She picked it up and weighed it in her hands. "Are you too cool to play fetch or something or are you teasing me? You're not a real dog are you."

It barked. It didn't often bark and she frowned as she tried to think what it might be trying to tell her. Once more she drew her arm and aimed towards the beach, then threw it as hard as she could. It spun through the air until it eventually clattered into the sand. She looked back at the dog and enunciated clearly as she pointed. "Fetch! F-E-T-C-H! Fetch!"

The dog gave her another one of those slanted looks before trotting off after the stick she'd thrown. "Ah!" she clapped her hands. "And the dog gets a brain!"

The dog picked up the stick, but instead of trotting obediently back, it started dragging it through the sand in strange, thought-out patterns. Kagome frowned as she padded down the same track the dog had taken to the beach and stopped dead as the dog stopped messing around and looked back up to her with the stick still in his mouth.

It had just written 'Bite me' rather clearly in the sand.

"Wha… you… but…" Kagome pointed in shock at the words as she gaped at the dog. The thoughts were flicking by too fast for her mouth to catch up. "But you're a - dogs don't write – and… don't… understand how…"

She staggered further down the path and came to an abrupt halt in the sand just below the words. She read them. And read them again. And then reread them just to be sure. "But how… how is that possible?" 

Kagome turned her gaze towards the dog who seemed to be shifting from foot to foot to foot impatiently… "What are you?" she asked loudly, in a horrified sort of voice. "Are you another shape shifter like Naraku… or… Inuyasha?"

For a moment she could have sworn the dog looked pained, before it quickly started drawing more characters in the sand. He'd gone as far as the second character, spelling out 'Inu' and 'Ya' but had to stop and drop his stick when Kagome emitted a short, sharp scream.

"Inuyasha?!" she gaped at him. "Inuyasha – is that you?!"

The big black dog barked.

"What are you doing?!" she all but screamed again. "You're a dog! Why did you turn yourself into a dog! Turn back this instant!"

He growled at her, obviously it seemed that he disagreed with her. She dashed towards him and fell to her knees before him, suddenly unable to keep from fisting her hands in his shaggy mane of fur. "What are you doing like this – don't you have any idea how worried I've been about you?! Mom went missing and you went missing and I thought you were mad at me because of what I said yesterday and oh my god! I took my bikini off in front of you – you damn pervert you did that on pur-!"

He barked suddenly, right in her face, startling her out of her babble. She blinked and suddenly flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. "I was so worried about you! What were you thinking?! How come you're a dog?"

She drew back and looked at him… before she couldn't overcome the squeal of delight that rose up. She grabbed his ears and ruffled them. "You're just too cute! Maybe this is an improvement?"

He gave a small sniff, and then sneezed in her face. 

Kagome froze and screwed her expression up, barely daring to breathe. "Eeeew… that's _disgusting_…" she released him to wipe her arm over her face. "Doggy germs…"

He butted her away from him gently and padded a few feet away across the sand, then looked back at her and barked. Kagome frowned, trying to understand. "You can't change back, can you?"

He barked again, and if a dog could nod, he did so just then. It took a lot of effort it seemed, but his head went up and down so she took it as a 'yes' response.

"Do you want me to wish you back?" she asked dubiously. He responded with a more emphatic bark. "Ok… but if you're really just a dog then I'm going to look pretty stupid." She steeled herself and pressed her fingers into the sand nervously. She really didn't want to mess this up, so she thought hard about how to phrase the wish before she said it and closed her eyes tightly whilst she did so. "I wish for you to change back into the form you usually use…" she cracked open an eye, about to add a small 'is that right?' but the word died on her tongue as she suddenly found herself having to raise her gaze to look up at Inuyasha's face.

"Urgh!" he growled angrily as he spat a bit of bark out of his mouth. "Took you long enough! You're so fucking slow! I thought I'd be stuck like that forever!"

"Um… Inuyasha…?"

"Do you know how embarrassing it is to walk around like a pet?!" he ranted. "Do you?! I kept trying to hint – but you were so fucking blind – if there was an award for being slow and dull you would so be the winner! I can't believe I spent the whole day down on all fours – I walked on some glass and look!" he held up his hand and jabbed a finger at a cut on his palm. "It bloody hurt and I couldn't do anything about it!"

Kagome wasn't looking at his hand. "Inuyasha…?"

"Bleeding ridiculous…" he muttered angrily, working the little shard of glass out of his hand. "Disaster strikes us and all you can do is play fetch with me, you're so-"

"Slow! I know! You don't have to tell me again!" she interrupted him loudly, a little red in the cheeks. "I think you should know something-"

"Now's not the time!" he interrupted her as well. "Because I think you should know something too-"

Kagome cut him off again. "Put some clothes on or something!" she yelled, clenching her fists and closing her eyes as she willed her face not to feel so hot. "You're naked over there!"

He stopped, looking down at himself and then snapped a glare on her. "So? What of it? This isn't the time to get dressed – this is the time to panic and-"

"There is _always_ the time to get dressed!" she shouted hotly and stood up to head back to the house, unable to look in his general direction again without her eyes falling to… _that_…

How could he be so unabashed about something like that?! She pondered this as she fanned her face and tried to make her escape. But something he said made her stop.

"Naraku's here."

Kagome stiffened and stared off into the distance, but she didn't turn around to face him.

"And…" he seemed to choose his words carefully. "…We're in trouble."

It summed up everything perfectly well. 

AN: Ok, and we're back to the Naraku plot again! Yay! Or not so Yay in some people's opinions (mostly mine). Sometimes I wish I could just write that he takes a fall off a cliff and dies so that he won't bother anyone anymore… but believe me, that would get more boos than cheers.


	14. Fever Dreams

****

Author's Notes: Just so you know. Basmalti isn't a type of dog, it really is just a rice. And Braune isn't a country either – it's a company which makes Kettles. So don't expect to find it on a map or anything ^_^. Can you tell I got my inspiration for these names from the kitchen? I must have been hungry or something…

And also, I haven't made a mistake about Inuyasha's heritage. Someone thought I was contradicting myself since I'd apparently said Inuyasha's parents were Wishbringers… but I'm sure I never said that. Perhaps it was because I'd said he'd been sired by a Wishbringer – yes – the ninth generation – not necessarily his father, but just the guy who made him a Wishbringer. So there's no mistake being made there.

And sorry about spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and typos. I don't have the patience or time to go through these chapters myself and they're always kinda rushed and written in one or two goes. So you'll have to excuse me (I swear it's not because I'm illiterate!).

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 14

Fever Dreams

For the first time since this whole affair had started… Kagome was worried. Or more like anxious. Yeah, sure, in the past since the ordeal with Inuyasha had begun, she'd gone through various emotions such as anger, impatience, fear, disappointment, blushing (that was classed as an emotion since she didn't know which real emotion went with that one), joy, and some more anger just for kicks. But so far she'd never been quite so anxious as this…

This was the kind of worry that chewed at her insides, familiar in situations when she'd forgotten to do her homework assignments and knew she was going to be in trouble with the teacher. The same kind of worry she got when she awaited the results of an exam she thought she'd done bad in…

It was all Inuyasha's fault of course. Kagome was using the philosophy that if Inuyasha was worried, then she had every right to be even more worried.

So here she was, huddled up at the end of her bed, and if it hadn't been so hot she would have had the blankets drawn up around her like some kind of shield against the world. As if blankets and a mosquito net would keep Naraku at bay…

Inuyasha had simply told her to go to bed with everyone else and not to stray from the house while he went away and sorted something out. Kagome hadn't worried at first, when he'd told her to go back inside while he went to fetch his clothes… only… when he'd started _walking _away down the beach, she'd gotten the impression something was wrong. Why wasn't he doing his quick little disappearing into thin air impression?

So she'd asked him. "Why aren't you apparating?" The result of having read too much Harry Potter in her time.

"Can't." he'd said simply over his shoulder. "Too weak right now."

Too weak? Kagome hadn't liked the sound of that… why was he too weak? Naraku had followed them, and Inuyasha was weak? That hadn't sounded promising…

Kagome gave a paranoid twitch as she heard something stir in another part of the house. She clasped the spare curtain rail that she'd grabbed as a make-shift weapon on her way to bed, and listened with rapt attention. It was probably just someone shifting in their bed… it was the middle of the night… but having spent too much time around Inuyasha, Kagome was turning into a nervous wreck.

In fact she was so nervous she was actually beginning to feel a little sick. Though that could have just been a result of eating that dodgy looking steak for dinner… Hadn't Souta tried to feed it to Inuyasha?

The window behind her suddenly wrenched open and Kagome gave a heavy start and whipped around. "Who's there?!" she demanded in a squeaky voice.

"Don't swing that thing, it's me!" Inuyasha dropped through the open window and pushed aside the netting around her bed so she could see him. She was more or less relieved to see that he was fully closed again… though he seemed to be covered in a few blood stains.

"How can I be sure you're not Naraku?" she asked pointedly, refusing to put down the metal pole.

"Because I'm not!" he said bluntly and sat down on the bed, drawing the netting back in place and swotting a few mosquitoes that had followed him in. "Damn bugs…"

Slowly, Kagome lowered the pole. If Naraku was as clever as Inuyasha made him out to be, he would have thought of some better reason than 'because I say I am'. This was definitely Inuyasha. "So what's going on?" she asked quietly. "You said this was serious, right?"

"It is." Inuyasha refused to look at her, keeping up the pretence of brushing sand from his clothes. "I don't know how I didn't detect him, but Naraku followed us here. Probably on the plane… he can hide his scent which pretty much puts him on my blind spot. He's been posing as your mother all day…"

"So…" Kagome stared at him with wide eyes, in her mind she went over all her interactions with her 'mother' for that day. "He's been that close." Suddenly she felt even sicker. "Oh god… I think I may have actually kissed him on the cheek."

She wasn't the only one who shuddered. "He's sick Kagome. Sick _and _strong…"

"But I don't understand something," she shifted so she could hug her knees. "Why were you a dog before? What did Naraku do to you?"

Inuyasha sighed heavily. "He wished I were a lap dog…"

For a few silent moments Kagome didn't understand. Until it suddenly dawned on her. "Oh… you don't mean… I couldn't find the bottle – did he have it?"

Inuyasha nodded glumly, mildly glaring at the bed.

"So…" Kagome quickly joined all the pieces together in her head. "I guess he didn't know what he was wishing for when he wished you were a lap-"

"He knew exactly what he was wishing for." Inuyasha broke in bitterly. "He's just toying with us… he could have done much worse with his first wish."

Now Kagome's worry was quickly changing to fear. Naraku had nine wishes and Inuyasha at his beck and call… Kagome only had three left… the damage that could be done with only one wish alone was hard to think about without wanting to panic. Naraku had nine wishes…

"What else did he do?" Kagome questioned quickly.

"What?" he blinked up at her.

"You said – before – you said you were too weak to… do that thing you usually do to go other places…" she chewed her lip.

Inuyasha just sighed again. "I told you before. A Wishbringer can't use his power on himself."

"So?"

"So making a wish that will turn me into an animal drains my life force. I was lucky he didn't ask me to do anything too drastic to myself otherwise it might have consumed all my life… and then I'd be dead." He rubbed his face. "I'm very tired right now… I've never changed forms like that before… and changing back is just as energy draining…"

"But you've changed your forms before right?" Kagome pointed out. "I mean – you pretended to be me to get me expelled and it didn't drain your energy back then. Why was this any diff-"

"Because back then the change was only skin deep. I was still Inuyasha on the inside, I still had all my strength and power, even though I was wearing your face – I was still a Wishbringer. But Naraku turned me into a dog… a real dog… inside and out. A change that dramatic had more impact on my life force."

"But you're going to be ok, right?" she shifted anxiously. He just nodded, but she wasn't too convinced. "Maybe you should sleep."

"Sleep won't do it." He shook his head. "I need to go back to the bottle… but Naraku has the bottle, and there's no way in hell I'll willingly go to him like that."

"Ok… but maybe you should take it easy." She suggested.

"I plan to." He shrugged, about to get up and leave when he noticed how tense she looked, so he settled back down. "What's the matter?"

"What do you think is the matter?" she said snippily. "How do I know Naraku won't come in the middle of the night and slit my throat?"

"Well, here I thought you were an optimist…"

"It's hard to be optimistic when our lives are in Naraku's hands." What if history began repeating itself. What if what happened to Kikyo happened to Kagome? What would happen to Inuyasha? Would he survive this time? Alone? As half a biscuit still? Would Kagome survive for that matter?

It was all becoming a little overwhelming for poor Kagome. "He could come tonight…" Kagome fretted. "He could have killed Mom – we're lucky he only knocked her unconscious! He could have killed Souta – he could have killed Grandpa! He could have killed you! He still could!"

Inuyasha frowned grimly down at the bed again, though he had to admit he was oddly touched by Kagome's concern for his welfare. "But we're all ok, we're not in any immediate danger I don't think."

"That's easy for you to say…" Kagome closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against her knees. "He could order you to do all kinds of horrible things…"

"He can't order me to hurt you." Inuyasha said firmly. "That's against the rules."

"Yes, but you could still hurt my family." Kagome pointed out. "And he could order you to stand by and do nothing whilst he hurt me himself. God… we're in real trouble Inuyasha…"

She had a very valid point… Naraku had nine wishes to use against them. Kagome only had three left at their defence. She could use up all three in countering Naraku's wishes… but then Inuyasha would solely belong to Naraku, and hurting Kagome wouldn't be against the rules then.

It was a horrible, disturbing prospect and Kagome knew it as much as he did. Her shoulders were beginning to shake and he looked up at her quickly, realising with a jolt that she was crying. "Kagome…?" he called uneasily.

"Why can't he just leave us alone?" she asked, her voice strained and hoarse, though muffled as she refused to lift it from her knees. "Why can't he see that you didn't mean Kikyo any harm – that this is none of our fault?!"

"Because that would be too simple." Inuyasha sighed, wishing she would stop shaking like that. "He blames me for her death and he wants you because you look like her. That's how he sees it… we can't change that."

This didn't seem to make her feel any better, in fact, she only started shaking harder with harsher sobs, but she didn't make a sound. Something tugged in his chest, at the same moment he tugged Kagome towards him in a no-nonsense sort of way and pulled an arm around her shoulder. He felt her stiffen in alarm, and for a moment he was rewarded as her sobbing came to an abrupt halt.

"I don't know how much I can do…" he said quietly, but with complete honesty. "But I promise that while I'm here, neither you, your brother, your mother or your dotty Grandpa will come to any harm. Got that? You're the master I follow… not him…"

For a few hopeful moments it seemed like she had stopped crying. Until she suddenly clenched her fingers in his shirt and buried her head on his shoulder as she attempted to muffle rather loud sobs.

"Oh Kagome…" Inuyasha sighed with a hopeless feeling. "You shouldn't cry – I'm saying I'll protect you!"

"I know!" she cried. "And I'm really gr-grateful!" she started crying harder.

Not knowing what else to do, he awkwardly wrapped a second arm around her shoulders and sat somewhat stiffly. "There, there. It'll be ok." he patted her back in a mechanical sort of way. "And… um… you should stop crying now, because it's rather unattractive and it'll make your eyes puffy and sore and you're getting my shirt wet and it's beginning to chaff my skin which is feeling a little tender right now if you don't mind and-"

Kagome pushed him off the bed and flopped down to embrace her pillows instead. "You're not very good at this are you?" she muttered bitterly into the fluffy cushions.

Inuyasha and sat up on the floor, tentatively touching his chest. "Yeah well I don't get much practise with my kind of lifestyle."

"You've had five hundred years to practise." She shot back.

"And I've only been awake for about thirty of those years!" Inuyasha responded angrily and tried to stand… only he needed to sit for a moment and catch his breath. Kagome must have heard his uneven breathing because she lifted her tear-streaked face and looked down at him.

"What's the matter?"

He stiffened slightly. "Nothing." He said in a suspicious wheeze.

"You're injured." She sat up suddenly, no longer crying. "Why didn't you say something?!" she demanded.

"I was afraid you'd try and splint it or something."

"You're damn right I'd try to-"

"No point. No damage. Just a memory of the pain that's all… it's healed now." He stood up carefully and gave her a stiff kind of farewell salute. "I'll be writhing in agony on the couch if you need me." He turned and headed for her door.

"Ok… G'night…" she called after him as he shut her in. Kagome stared after him for a moment before huddling down on the bed, curtain rail once more clasped in her hands. Inuyasha would protect her. He'd promised hadn't he? So there was no need to worry…

So why did she still feel sick with it?

^_^

"Where's Kagome?" Inuyasha asked the next morning as he arrived through the screen doors with a disgruntled looking Souta hung over one shoulder.

"She's in the bathroom… poor thing." Mrs Higurashi said as she went about setting the table for breakfast. "Thanks for fetching Souta by the way."

"I'm not a runaway hamster or anything." Souta said indignantly as Inuyasha let him slide to the floor. "I just wanted to see what the oysters and clams looked like."

"And if you'd fallen off the cliff onto the jagged rocks below – what then?"

"I did fall." Souta said bluntly. "But Inuyasha caught me, so no harm done right?"

Mrs Higurashi gave him a strained look before calling Grandpa and Kagome to come to breakfast. When only Grandpa turned up Mrs Higurashi looked to Inuyasha. "Could you go check on her? Only I'm worried she might have flushed her head down the toilet."

"Uh… ok…" Inuyasha padded across the living room to the bathroom door and raised a fist to knock. "Kagome, you-"

The door swung open suddenly and he flinched back in horror as he saw her face. "God! You look _awful_!" he cried loudly. "You're _green_!"

"Shut up!" she croaked and glared at him as she pushed past him. "I'm sick, that's all! It's nothing, though. Just a twenty-four hour bug thing and…" she sniffed. "Is that bacon…?"

"And eggs and chips and fried toast swimming in fat – a proper English breakfast says your mother. Oh. And big, fat, juicy sausages and… where are you going?"

Kagome had suddenly clapped a hand over her mouth as she'd dashed back into the bathroom and slammed the door in her wake. His keen ears picked up the sound of her retching over the lavatory again. He smirked and gave another knock. "You better not be in there all day – there are other people in this house who need to use the facilities too, you know."

"Sod off!" Kagome managed to yell before she succumbed to another wave of sickness.

"Oh leave her be Inuyasha." Mrs Higurashi called. "She'll come and eat later when she's perked up."

But Kagome didn't perk up. In fact she remained in the bathroom all morning, groaning ominously and embracing the toilet like it was a long lost friend. "I hate… vacations…" she mumbled to Inuyasha where he sat on the bidet close by, holding her hair up out of her face.

"Well then you shouldn't have gotten sick." He reminded her.

"This is entirely your fault." She complained. "I mean… I know I always say that, but I really mean it this time. If you hadn't turned into a dog then Souta wouldn't have left the steaks out for you, and then they wouldn't have turned back and I wouldn't have eaten bad steak and then I wouldn't be ill."

"It's not my fault I turned into a bleeding animal!" Inuyasha leapt to his own defence, a little stung. "Why don't you blame your brother – or better yet; why don't you blame Naraku?"

"Well I'm too busy blaming him for everything else bad that's happened recently." She shifted, rubbing her stomach. Fortunately she wasn't throwing up anymore, but only because she had nothing left to hold down. She still felt incredibly sick. "Just my luck… to get a great holiday and then get food poisoning. It happened when I went to France too when I was seven…"

"You could always wish yourself better." He reminded her.

"And then be stuck with only two wishes to defend ourselves against Naraku?" she pulled a face. "Don't think so…"

Inuyasha cocked his head to the side as he evaluated her. "It might help if you ate some fruit. Peaches or Nectarines maybe?"

"Why?" The thought of food made her stomach clench, but funnily enough, thinking about fruit wasn't so bad.

"They might help settle your stomach."

Well… she was quite hungry by now… "Ok. But if I start throwing up again I'll aim at you."

"Now there's a pleasant thought." He disappeared into thin air in a few whirls of wispy smoke and Kagome's hair dropped back down against her neck. She wasn't alone for long though, and he reappeared a few moments later with two red nectarines in his hand.

"Well you didn't have any in the kitchen so I nicked some from the market down across the town." He held them out. "Here you go."

"So you're getting your strength back?" she rasped as she sat up and took one of the nectarines and cleaned it on a towel. Wow… it smelt good.

"Slowly." He said carefully. She had the feeling he was watching what he said around her, as though not wanting to alarm her like he'd done last night. "Naraku hasn't summoned me. So that's a good sign at least."

"Where do you think he is?" Kagome asked.

"I have no idea." He sighed. "Normally I can sense where masters are, but… for some reason Naraku's presence completely baffles me. It might be because he's Youkai… or a Hanyou… I've only ever had Human masters before. But I can still feel him around somewhere…"

"It's like he's stalking us." Kagome shuddered as she chewed carefully on a slice of fruit.

"Well… he is."

Kagome stared at him. "That's not what I wanted to hear." Her stomach was beginning to churn again, no sooner had she swallowed her first bite of fruit. "Urgh… I think I'm gonna hurl again."

Inuyasha shrugged in an 'oh well' kind of way as she turned back to the toilet. "Maybe you need to get past the worst part before you start eating then?"

"You mean I'm not past the worst stage?" Kagome whined. "Oh god…"

With a sigh, Inuyasha patted her on the back and said in a lightly patronising tone, "Don't strain yourself, yeah?" And before Kagome had a chance to throw a roll of toilet paper at him he dissipated into thin air.

"Git face!" Kagome yelled hoarsely as she closed her eyes and prayed that she'd just stop feeling so sick.

^_^

Despite all that had happened, Kagome refused to let the latest twist of events get her down. Naraku may have been out to get revenge, and the food may also have been out to get the same thing, but she kept telling everyone she would be fine with one nights good sleep. That, no, she didn't any medication or pills, and, no Inuyasha, she wouldn't let Naraku get her down. He hadn't hurt them so far, so perhaps they would have a bit longer to prepare.

"We need to get the bottle back." Inuyasha told her as he paced alongside her bed. Kagome pretended to be interested, but was having trouble seeing as how her head refused to stop spinning and her skin seemed to be burning with a prickly heat.

"As long as Naraku has the bottle," Inuyasha went on, "Naraku can summon me at any time to make wishes. But if _we _have the bottle then he can't call upon me."

"He's still toying with us…" Kagome muttered, wearily closing her eyes. "I don't think our lives our in danger just yet."

"But what if that's what he wants us to think?" Inuyasha mused thoughtfully, a hand to his chin. He turned back to Kagome, about to ask her something when he realised she was really struggling to stay conscious for him. He dropped his hand from his chin and his eyes softened slightly. "You should get some rest. It's getting late."

"Mm." Kagome agreed absently, already beginning to drift off at his consent. It was probably good she slept… but he was willing to bet that at this rate she'd start getting feverish. Perhaps it wasn't just food-poisoning that was wrong with her?

"I'll be in the living room if you need me." He called, but she was already asleep.

With a heavy-hearted sigh he headed back out into the living area and flopped down onto the nearest sofa. He was still suffering from his lost energy, but he was slowly getting better… if he'd just had his bottle, then he would only have to spend a few hours in it to recover completely. But no… Naraku had it…

Until the time he managed to get back the bottle, he was have to substitute his regeneration with sleep. Not entirely affective, but it was nice to dream sometimes. Something that didn't happen when he slept inside the bottle.

So he simply closed his eyes and, like flicking a switch, shut his mind off and let sleep take him. It was pretty normal at first. He dreamt about odd things whenever he slept like that… this time it had something to do with following a trail of egg yoke down the stairs of the ancient house in Izu. Somewhere in the basement the trail stopped at a microwave. Souta passed by with clams gripping each finger, scolding him for putting eggs in the microwave. The boy didn't stick around for long though, and when Inuyasha opened the microwave he found a chicken inside. Well… more like a bedraggled looking chick to begin with, and it started _limping _after him, back up the stairs… Inuyasha had the distinctive impression that it wanted world domination.

But of course, if he was able to have dreams then he was able to have nightmares too, right?

That strange dream about the chicken changed like dreams often did and he found himself running. He was utterly terrified in the dream, and he knew something was chasing him – and it wasn't that chicken anymore. But behind him he could see nothing… either that or he couldn't turn his head to look. He didn't know where he was, it was neither a forest or a corridor or a road or even a blank white expanse of nothing. Up ahead he saw three doors… he had to choose one and it had to be the right one. If he chose the wrong one, whatever it was that was chasing him would get him. 

He dived through the door on his right and slammed it shut after him, but when he looked back, the door was wrong. It seemed to be only half a door and it didn't reach all the way across to be completely shut.

It was going to get him.

The dream changed again and he found himself relocating into different places in quick succession. The living room, the bedroom, the hall way, the bathroom… until finally with a crack he ended up in the attic and stopped dead.

"He's coming isn't he?" Kikyo whispered, she was leant up against one of the buttress pillars in the dark cramped space of the loft. Inuyasha only nodded and went to her, crouching before her and smoothing her hair back from her face. She looked terrified.

"Don't be scared." He told her in a quiet voice.

"I have to be. He's coming and you can't stop him… you belong to him just like you belong to me." She worried her lip as she stared fearfully at the trap door a few metres away. "He'll come through there and then I'll be at his mercy."

"I'll protect you."

"You can't."

"I'll try – even if I have to break the rules."

"You'll never break the rules." She told him seriously, but not unkindly. "You wouldn't give your life up for me like that. You're too afraid. We both are."

"Make a wish, please. I have to help you now."

She was watching his face thoughtfully, before she suddenly smiled. "My life has been a misery. You'll leave me soon whether we like it or not, and then it will be even more of a misery. I only want one thing left now…"

"Kikyo-"

"I want to die a happy woman. I've never been truly happy… and I want to take the feeling with me into the afterlife." She told him quickly. That ominous thing that had been pursuing him before was getting closer. He could sense it. "I've thought about it… this is what I want. I've hidden your container in one of the sealed crates. Onigumo will never lay his hands on it again and when I die, you'll return there, he'll never be able to call on you again."

"Kikyo… don't…" he begged. "Please don't do this…"

"I wish to die a happy woman." She breathed. "Don't be sad… it's better I be happy in an eternal death than miserable for life. Please…?"

"As you wish."

She gave the most beautiful smile she'd ever given anyone. He had serious doubts that there was a lovelier sight in the world. The shadows lifted from her eyes and she was happy, for one solitary perfect moment. Then she slumped forward against him and died.

"No…" he breathed. He didn't remember if he'd cried. If there had been time to cry. He'd been sucked back into his hidden bottle before he'd had a chance to get over his shock… but in this dream he had the time.

He let her body down on the floor and saw something that made his heart jolt.

It was Kagome.

"No!"

The trapdoor burst behind him and something rammed through his shoulder… a spear or something. Darkness started to consume him. Was this what it was like to die? Sound was becoming mute and he was curling in on himself…

"Wake up!"

He jolted awake and gave a gasp as the world reasserted itself sharply. The spear in his shoulder was actually Souta jamming a hand against him. "Wake up – you're having a nightmare."

"I'm awake!" Inuyasha hissed as he pushed the boy's hand aside and looked around. It was still dark outside. "Did I wake you?" he asked Kagome's brother.

"Yeah…" Souta yawned widely, rubbing a hand through his mused hair. "Kept screamin' 'no!' or 'don't!'."

"Go back to bed." Inuyasha said shortly, as he turned his back huffily and shifted to get comfy.

"Ok. Don't let the bugs bite…" Souta gave another jaw-cracking yawn and headed off back to his room.

Inuyasha lay awake for a few minutes, pondering the meaning of his dreams. That last one had seemed more like a memory than a dream… but then it had got weird at the end… he didn't really remember the others.

But it wasn't long before exhaustion was claiming him again and he went back to sleep. This time round his dreams were slightly more pleasant.

^_^

Kagome just couldn't bear it anymore. The heat was burning her inside out now, even though she was shivering with cold heat at the same time. Her muscles felt sore and weak and her throat was so dry it was painful to swallow.

She was still really only half asleep as she swung her legs out of bed and stood, swaying for a few moments before tottering unsteadily to the door. On auto-pilot, she headed for the kitchen… needing a glass of water to soothe her poor dry mouth. She bumped into a few counters and stumped over a few magazines lying haphazardly around the floor.

She didn't even make it to the kitchen when something made her turn. Her eyes travelled from the floor at her feet, across the room… over where Inuyasha lay sleeping on the sofa and to the sliding glass doors opposite.

There was someone outside.

Only in her feverish state would Kagome even think about going out there. On a normal day she would immediately wake Inuyasha and let him go see who it was. But instead, she found her feet pattering across the plush carpeted floor towards the doors. She slid them back without thinking and stepped onto the veranda.

The person was on the beach, and so naturally, Kagome followed down the path, heading towards them, vaguely wondering who on earth would be up at this hour.

As she neared… Kagome was able to make out that she was a woman… as she got nearer, she found that she was in fact, no more than a girl really. She was sitting on the rocks where Inuyasha had shown her his biscuits (not an euphemism). Long black hair glided down her shoulders as she had her face tilted up to the star filled sky… she was wearing an old western style dress… faint yellow with floral patterns. Much like the ones Kagome had seen in the crates in the attic of the old Izu house.

As Kagome got even nearer, the heat increasing with every step she seemed to take, she realised that the girl was singing… but no sound could be heard.

When Kagome eventually swayed to a halt a metre or so away from the girl she saw something else surprising. The girl looked like the girl in Kagome's mirror…

"She was wrong." The girl suddenly blinked dark, hooded eyes at her. "She thought that she couldn't sing at all… she thought the reason she produced no sound was because angel's didn't exist, and therefore did not sing. But they exist… and they sing… sing with heavenly voices. You just have to have the right ears to hear them. Dogs can hear them…"

A small breeze tilted Kagome to the side. Her head hurt and she wasn't sure where she was. "Kikyo." That was the only thing she could really recognise in this scene. The girl had to be her…

Kikyo really did have a beautiful smile when she put in the effort. She smiled for Kagome and stood gracefully, looking down on the second girl who was an inch or two shorter. "Come with me, Kagome. I want to show you something."

Kagome stood staring for a moment, trying to remember if that was indeed her name. Then slowly she returned a lopsided sort of smile and took the girl's outstretched hand.

AN: I promise I'll try to update Life Exchange (there are only about 2 more chapters for it though). But there are plenty more chapters for this one I think you'll find ^_^.


	15. The Trip Back Home

****

Author's Notes: Urgh… I feel so sick right now… I don't know, but whenever I write about something which happens to the characters, I get a bit of it as well. Like when someone gets hit on the head, I get a headache. So when someone throws up, I get queasy. Perhaps I get too involved subconsciously with the story? Hmm…

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 15

The Trip Back Home

Inuyasha had another dream. After a series of strange ones including trying to catch to catch flying earwigs with a butterfly net, the dreams once more changed to a slightly more unnerving, yet realistic quality.

He dreamt that Kagome had been poisoned, that her mind was clouded with fever and she acted without any thought. He dreamt that Naraku took her away and tortured her until he killed her… and Inuyasha saw it all.

He awoke rather suddenly and gazed dumbly at the ceiling for a long time before his shocked mind managed to catch up with him. It was then that he decided dreaming just wasn't for him… perhaps it was time to get his bottle back, and then whenever he needed to sleep, he wouldn't be aware of anything other than the darkness. It was much less distressing… in its own way, of course.

Maybe he should go check on Kagome? He quietly slithered off the sofa and felt his way across the room towards her bedroom door. It wasn't that it was dark or anything, in fact the early morning light lit up the house quite well by now. It was just that usually when he slept the normal way, he didn't tend to actually wake up until a good half hour after getting up.

Inuyasha ended up missing her doorknob and bumped into the door itself with a hissed curse that managed to come out backwards. "Tish…"

He tried groping for the handle again and somehow succeeded in pushing the door open far enough to look inside. Ah… the pantry. He turned and raised a hand to rub his head as he tried locating the correct door from what little he remembered. After a few moments he aimed at a new door – the open one which he was sure belonged to Kagome.

He reached it and only had to take one look inside before he quickly began to snap himself together.

Kagome wasn't inside.

It took a few seconds of clueless silence before Inuyasha lowered his hand from his head and blinked his eyes rapidly, refocusing on the rumpled, yet empty water bed inside the room. Then he began to worry, in a stomach chewing, cold tingly feeling down the spine kind of way. He turned quickly and ran towards the kitchen, before changing his mind and running towards the bathroom, then changing it again as he doubled back towards her room to check inside again in case he'd imagined it.

No, Kagome was definitely gone.

He checked the bathroom in case she was hugging the lavatory again, but that was just as empty as the bedroom. He searched the house in its entirety before beginning to check outside. Outside was a much larger place to search, and it would take far too long and waste valuable time to do it the physical way.

Perhaps he was overreacting… but something told him he was under-reacting. And perhaps he didn't quite have the energy to perform the next task, but he was going to give it a shot anyway.

With a small sigh, he released the ties he held to a corporeal form and left the physical world the same way he did every time he dissipated. He did it often enough, but this time he got a shock.

He instantly located Kagome… she was on the coast nearly half a mile away… semi-conscious from what he could tell. His other master… Naraku… was there with him. And he was summoning Inuyasha.

In a millisecond Inuyasha appeared on the beach they shared. Almost at once he regretted doing the search… now he felt weaker and more exhausted than ever.

"I was wondering when you'd come."

Inuyasha forced himself to stand straight as he turned slowly to face the source of the voice. At first his gaze fell on the girl who lay sprawled in the sand, groaning painfully occasionally… too lost in fever to be aware of what was going on. Then his gaze flicked to Naraku. He was wearing a form Inuyasha didn't recognise.

"Is that your real face?" Inuyasha questioned at once, eyeing his form. A young man, probably in his early twenties with a handsome face and long, dark hair stood a few metres from Kagome.

"This is no more my real face than any other I have used. I have no face." Naraku shrugged a little carelessly, wearing a bored flat expression that seemed to come with the face. "He's the son of a warlord… Wadaka… I killed him and his father five hundred years ago."

"You've only been alive for-"

"I know." Naraku interrupted. "But my roots spread further than you can imagine, little Hanyou."

Inuyasha's lip curled, but he made no move to start conversation again. His main concern was to get Kagome and himself out of there with as little damage as possible. The imminent danger of Naraku using another wish hung over his head like an anvil on a tiny bit of string.

"She's very useful this girl." Naraku slid a look to Kagome who still lay shivering in the sand. "It didn't take much persuading to get her to talk."

Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably… he was just too far away from either of them to do much good. And if he got into a real fight with Naraku he was sure to lose…

Not that that would stop him from fighting if it came to that.

"So…" Naraku folded his arms in a regal way, as though he really was the young lord he appeared to be. "I have an idea for my second wish. Well actually… I suppose it was Kagome's idea first. But it was a very good idea."

"And what would that be?" Inuyasha demanded, with a sinking feeling.

"I wish for you to obey every order and command I give you, whether it begins with 'I wish' or not and to answer every question I ask." Naraku smiled slowly and tilted his head to the side. "Now… isn't that just the most convenient wish ever?"

Inuyasha kept his jaw shut tightly.

"Grant it, Inuyasha." Naraku raised an eyebrow. "You know what will happen if you don't."

Inuyasha stole another glance at Kagome. She seemed ok… she was just feverish. It didn't look as though Naraku had hurt her from what he could see. He snapped a glare back at Naraku. "As… as you wish." He said jerkily.

"That wasn't so hard was it?"

"N-No." Inuyasha muttered uncertainly.

"Come here." Naraku beckoned him over with one finger crooked.

Inuyasha took a steadying breath and moved forward, taking measured steps each time and counting down the inches until he could stop as far away from Naraku as possible. He halted a metre away, watching Kagome out of the corner of his eye whilst glaring directly across at the man before him.

"And take this." Naraku reached into his large black open haori and extracted the empty coke bottle. He held it out for Inuyasha to take who just stared at it dumbly for a moment or two before reaching out to take it. He then stared at it some more in dumb amazement. "Please close your mouth Inuyasha, you'll catch flies."

"Why did you-"

"I do not explain my reasoning to just anyone." Naraku cut him off again sharply. "All you need to know is that I don't need it. Believe it or not, but I have more pressing matters to attend to other than you and her," he flicked a glance at Kagome as he said this, "and I do not need that bottle falling into the wrong hands. So you guard that bottle with your life. Do not let the girl misplace it again or she will be the first to suffer."

Inuyasha stared at him for a moment, digging a little deeper through the connection to this particular master. Naraku must have known what he was doing, seeing as how he narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. Inuyasha turned slightly suspicious. "Your desires have changed…"

Naraku still wanted Kagome… he still wanted Inuyasha's head… but he wanted something else too that Inuyasha didn't understand. Something that Naraku wasn't going to let him understand.

Naraku just scoffed. "All that means is you two are not worth my time right now." He ignored Inuyasha's bristle of displeasure. "You may take her back home with you. You may try and hide and run all you like, it doesn't matter to me. When the time comes I will exact my revenge on both you and Kikyo's reincarnation. You won't be able to stop it."

Inuyasha clenched his fists furiously. "That's what you fucking think you-"

"Stop talking."

Inuyasha fell silent, even though he mentally continued to scream abuse at him.

"Much better." Naraku sighed as though it had suddenly become pleasantly peaceful. "Now I shall be back in two days. Do as you wish until then."

He disappeared in a slightly more sophisticated way than Inuyasha usually did, complete with a purple swirl of mist or smoke and a little twinkling sound to accompany it. Inuyasha slashed his hand furiously in Naraku's wake, dispelling the smoke angrily. "Show off! There's no need to rub it in my face like that!"

He seethed quietly for a few moments before pitching the bottle down into the sand with an irritated sound. The bottle was too lightly made to even make a good impression in the sand and just rolled across the lumpy surface. Inuyasha kicked a little shower of sand in the direction of the bottle and turned abruptly to face Kagome. Just seeing her made him get a little more control of his temper and he sighed as he allowed a little of the anger inside him to melt away.

"Stupid, _stupid _girl." He murmured, but without much conviction, as he knelt down and scooped her up out of the sand. She gave a nervy twitch at being lifted, and continued to shake and tremble with the fever that made her skin scorching hot. "How could you let him get you like this?"

"Dix-huit…" Kagome mumbled, her brow twitching down in a frown as she continued to shiver. "… au pas du francais…"

"What?" he blinked down at her.

"Du pareil au meme…"

Great… now she was speaking French. Time to get her back to the house. He shot a quick disparaging glance in the direction of the coke bottle. He'd come back for it later… Kagome's welfare came first.

^_^

"I'm really sorry."

"S'ok…" Inuyasha shrugged and carried on hugging the cushion as he watched Tv.

"I mean I'm really, really sorry." Kagome wrung her hands nervously. Her throat was still raw and she was still a little shaky from the fever, not to mention the pounding headache she was suffering from… but she really was very apologetic. "I had no idea it was Naraku – I barely remember what happened!"

"I repeat: S'ok." Inuyasha gave another shrug.

"But it's not ok! Now Naraku can control you the way I can!" Kagome flopped down onto the sofa behind him. "God… if only I hadn't been so out of it – if only I hadn't told him what I wished for – god, I've ruined everything haven't I? I'm so sorry, I'm really, really sorry-"

"Shut up, Kagome." Inuyasha grumbled, sitting up and giving her a withering look. "If anyone's to blame, it's me. I should have been keeping an eye on you… but I let you get taken away and interrogated. You could have been killed."

A lump formed in her throat and she had difficulty swallowing. "Oh…"

Perhaps he shouldn't have said that… Inuyasha rolled his eyes back to the Tv, trying to put an end to the discussion. "You shouldn't kick yourself. Naraku won't be bothering us… at least… not until after tomorrow. So we have plenty of time to prepare for him and kick his ass."

Kagome still continued to shift uneasily. He just ignored her. There wasn't much they really could do for now… except hope and pray. He was just glad that tomorrow they would be heading home… so if Naraku ever decided to confront them, at least Inuyasha would feel more comfortable in a place that wasn't so much of a deserted island.

Or perhaps he felt he needed to give Kagome room to run in case Naraku used Inuyasha as ammunition against her… a thought Inuyasha didn't care to dwell on to much. "Where are you going?" he asked quickly as she stood up and started to move away.

"Eat more fruit. You were right about it settling my stomach…" she called over her shoulder as she disappeared into the kitchen.

^_^

For the life of her, Mrs Higurashi just couldn't understand the mood of depression that had settled over the family. Perhaps it was because their sunny summer holiday was coming to an end… but somehow she doubted that was the real reason.

The unhappy vibes seemed to be coming mostly from Kagome and Inuyasha… something had happened, but Mrs Higurashi knew that if it was her place to ask, then she'd probably already know what the matter was.

Perhaps it was because on their last day of the holiday, Kagome was still a little too sick to really enjoy herself, and Inuyasha seemed to have a tendency to follow Kagome's mood patterns… so if she was feeling sad, he was bound to look twice as sad as she felt. But then again everyone was a little too busy packing and being sad to really enjoy themselves that last day… but the young pair seemed a little detached from the packing.

Mrs Higurashi thought it was all rather sweet actually.

But the tension between them seemed to have mounted over night, and what had worried Mrs Higurashi the most was that as they headed back towards the airport to go back home in the helicopter, the pair had jumped a little too dramatically when the pilot had cried out in alarm. It turned out that the pilot had only spotted a few dolphins, but neither Inuyasha or Kagome had really relaxed after that.

"Bye-bye Paradise!" Souta called, almost tearfully as Kagome ushered him onto the plane, looking around warily over her shoulder. Inuyasha followed them, also casting a few reproachful looks over his shoulder as he entered the plane.

Mrs Higurashi witnessed it all and turned to her father who was winking at the air hostess. "Kagome and Inuyasha are acting a little odd, don't you think?" she pointed out as they passed out of the sun into the cool interior of the plane. They turned to head up to first class again.

"Well Kagome's ill… what's Inuyasha's excuse?" Grandpa shrugged as he handed his bags to his daughter so she could push them into the overhead compartments. "You shouldn't worry. They're just sad that they're going home now… they're not the only ones."

Mrs Higurashi patted his arm sympathetically upon hearing his longing tone and looked around to locate her children. Souta was once more plastered against the window, watching the people and vehicles down on the tarmac… but he was alone. For a moment Mrs Higurashi looked around quickly, trying to find them. "Where are they?"

"Probably joining the mile high club again." Souta chirped from the window. Both Mrs Higurashi and Grandpa gave a start.

"Don't be silly." She admonished lightly as she took her seat next to Souta. "You can't do that unless we're in the air!" she looked around again. "Oh there they are! Goodness… you'd think they were ashamed of us sitting all the way over there…"

Meanwhile Kagome rapped her fingers anxiously against her arm rest. She was sat right up in front of the large plasma screen in the centre of the carriage with Inuyasha on her left. Apparently her anxiety was annoying him…

"Would you stop that? You're putting me off." He griped from her side.

"Putting you off what?" she glanced at him.

He just shrugged with another irritated sound and leant in the opposite direction of her. Kagome sighed and forced her fingers to lay flat against her arm rests. She'd be a whole lot more comfortable if she still didn't feel too hot and exhausted… the sickness was still affecting her. Well, now she'd be a little more wary of bad steaks in the future.

Oh. And another thing that would make her a little more comfortable would be if Naraku hadn't promised to come for them that very day.

"I have no idea…" she muttered quietly to Inuyasha. "Are we safer in the air? Or are we in more danger?"

"Who knows?" he shrugged again and kept his gaze firmly fixed on the seat wall and screen in front of them.

"Well… I guess what comes will come…" Kagome gave a small, defeated sigh. "We can't stop it I suppose…"

Inuyasha looked at her. Then he looked away.

For a moment Kagome stared after him, puzzling over why he'd done that when the truth struck her. "Sorry…" she gave a wry smile. "Did I sound too much like Kikyo just then?"

She saw him flinch. "No." But it was obviously a lie.

Yet another heavy weight was settling over her heart. "You get this look in your eye every time someone mentions her name or you start thinking about her. The way you react to her mention is like you hate her or something…"

"I didn't hate her." He said through clenched teeth.

"I know… but you sure don't act that way." Kagome absently pulled the lever that allowed the foot rest to come up so she could put her feet up. "Ah… that's better."

A long pause stretched out. It felt comfortable to Kagome… but apparently Inuyasha still had something to say. "I don't hate her. I just want to put her behind me. I can't do that if everyone keeps talking about her. Why don't you just drop the subject."

"The one pursuing the subject is you." She shot back. "And haven't I already told you that forgetting her is pointless and disrespectful?"

"What would you know?" he hissed quietly. "You don't understand me. You don't know what it's like to-"

"What? To lose someone you care deeply about?" Kagome shot him a piercing glare. "I know more than you think. I've lost two people. That's more than you, if I have my calculations correct."

Inuyasha blinked in surprise at her. "Two…?"

For a long time Kagome didn't say anything. She folded her hands over her stomach and closed her eyes as the let the air conditioning cool her down. Around her she could hear the gentle hum of the engines and air hostesses and stewards asking if the fliers were comfortable. She opened her eyes. "When I was thirteen I watched my friend being run over by a car. She was knocked into the air and died the instant she hit the road." She glanced around to check that the rest of her family was still there. "The grief was horrible… I wouldn't stop crying for days and I didn't eat anything for ages. At the time I probably would have given anything to stop feeling so bad… but…"

"But?" Inuyasha prompted when she trailed off into silence for too long.

"I don't know. Even at the time I would rather have felt that pain than have felt nothing at all." She glanced over at him. "I think that if you can get past the grief then you'll be stronger than ever… but you'll never forget the person you lost. When you think back you'll remember why you cared about them so much… you forget the grief and how they died… you just remember the love."

"I didn't love her." Inuyasha said resolutely… but quietly.

"I know. But you still cared… you still grieve don't you?" Kagome asked and saw him nod. "Well time heals all wounds, right? You'll put her behind you eventually."

"Time is something I lack." He said quietly.

Kagome chewed her lip for a moment before taking a deep breath and gaining her courage… she reached out and folded her hand over his on the arm rest they shared. She expected him to either ignore her touch, or pull away. Which was why she was pleasantly surprised when his fingers splayed and locked with hers. Her heart jolted against her rib cage and the soft smile he gave her made her insides turn to jelly.

"Thanks though." He said quietly. "I didn't realise you'd lost… you know."

"It's ok. She's just a fond memory now. Like Kikyo will be." Kagome tried to return his warm smile, but she was a feeling a little too much like a doe caught in car headlights. "So you see? I understand you better than you think."

"Who was the second?"

"Huh? Oh…" Kagome waved a hand and sunk down in her seat. She pulled her hand away from his in fear that she would turn cherry red in a minute if she didn't stop. "My father I guess… but in a different way. I liked him – until he walked out on us… so I guess he's as good as dead to me."

"Ouch."

"Well he deserves it. I hate him. He just left us with no money just so he could pursue a flippant little affair with a blonde broad." Kagome scowled. "He's gone… but I guess I just don't grieve for him so much."

Which explained the absence of Kagome's father figure. "Well… you could always make a wish to make him break out in horrible warts and boils."

Kagome chuckled darkly. "That sounds good…"

"You know what they say." Inuyasha folded his hands behind his head as he grinned. "There's no better way to get over an old father than with a new father."

"That and vast quantities of alcohol – air hostess!"

^_^

"Are we nearly there yet?"

"No, honey."

"Are we nearly there yet?"

"No."

"Are we nearly-"

"You heard the lady – shut up!" Inuyasha reached across Kagome to flick Souta's ear.

"Hey!" the boy quickly launched a return assault against Inuyasha, all but falling across Kagome's lap to try and reach an ear to flick.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Kagome pushed both boys back to their side of the car and gave them both a severe look. "Start a war when there's more room, ok?" This put a stop to the pairs antics for at least five minutes, until Souta decided enough time had passed by. "How much further until we get to the house?"

"About an hour, love." Mrs Higurashi called from the steering wheel.

"I know!" Souta jumped up. "Why don't we play Yellow Car and Bugs?"

Kagome groaned. "Oh no…"

"What's that then?" Inuyasha asked.

"Every time you see a yellow car or a beetle you punch the person next to you." Souta explained.

"Oh no – you're not playing that game again!" Mrs Higurashi called from the front, giving them all a stern look in her rear view mirror. They all went into a sulky silence after that. Souta didn't ask how long the drive would be until…

"Yellow car!" He yelled and heartily jabbed a fist into Kagome's arm.

"Ow!" she hissed, instantly she began scouring the other road vehicles for something yellow. "Ah! Yellow beetle! Double punch!"

"You made that one up!" Souta yelled and punched Kagome's arm.

"Kids!" Grandpa called from the front. Mrs Higurashi was frowning whilst Inuyasha edged as far as was physically possible from Kagome.

"Bug!" Kagome cried, battering Souta's arm.

"I don't see any bugs!"

"I'm looking at one right now!" Kagome glared at him. The game was fast dissolving into a tussle. Grandpa turned in his seat and slapped their arms down. "Will you two give it a rest? You both act like little children."

"How come you didn't hit Inuyasha?" Souta pointed out as he rubbed his sore arm. "Don't you want to hurt your boyfriend?"

Kagome went bright red and made sure she kept her gaze fixed on Souta in case Inuyasha saw her flushed face. "Because Inuyasha hits a whole lot harder than you do, squirt!"

"You just fancy him, that's all." Souta muttered.

"You little-!"

Kagome broke off suddenly as the car gave a jolt and a screech of metal grinding on metal. Kagome's hand latched on to Inuyasha's arm to steady herself as she, along with everyone else, looked across to where another car had scraped across the wing.

The other car veered quickly away, the driver making angry signs at them. "What the hell…" Kagome whispered. For a moment she thought the other driver was trying to force them off the road… until their car suddenly swung to the left and scraped sides with a second vehicle. Souta fell against Kagome, who likewise fell against Inuyasha.

Kagome looked to her mother. "Mom! What are you doing?!"

Mrs Higurashi was in a panic. "I can't control the wheel – the brakes won't work!" she was forcefully trying to turn the wheel back the other way, but it seemed locked in place and wouldn't respond.

Kagome was suddenly shoved against Souta as Inuyasha shot forward into the gap between the driver's seat and the passenger seat – he grabbed the wheel along with her mother but even his inexorable strength wasn't enough to get control back.

Their car veered forward suddenly, too fast and slammed into the bumper of the car in front. Kagome and her mother gave sharp cries and Mrs Higurashi released the wheel, as if afraid to touch anything. Souta clutched Kagome around the waist, pale and wide-eyed. Grandpa looked just as shocked. Inuyasha was slightly more in control it seemed as he battled with the steering wheel but to no avail.

The car in front of them quickly shot sideways to avoid getting hit again… in fact a lot of the other road users and slowed down or sped up to get out of their way. The road was literally emptying right before their eyes and their car swerved left so suddenly the tires screeched and skidded and Inuyasha was thrown back into the back seat beside Kagome.

"Do something!" Kagome yelled to him over the noise of screaming tires and engine roaring.

"I can't!" he shouted back, looking the most tense she'd ever seen him.

The car gave another jolt to the side and Souta bounced against the door – thankfully it was locked so he didn't go flying out – but one look out the window had him shrilly. "K-Kagome!"

It was hard to hear what he was saying over the sound of screeching metal again. The car seemed to have hit the barricades at the side of the road and was scraping alongside them at full throttle. However, Kagome followed his gaze out of the window and suddenly went cold and pale.

They were driving along the side a rather steep, dizzyingly high hill… and the barricade was the only thing preventing them from going over the edge.

"I-Inuyasha!!" Kagome yanked on his sleeve to get his attention, but he was way ahead of her.

"It's Naraku!" he yelled back. "He's doing this!"

"Stop him then!" They veered back towards the middle of the road. Kagome was certain for a moment that the car tipped and flew on two wheels alone… but it righted itself in a fraction of a second.

"I can't!" He braced a hand against the door to keep from being thrown around. "You have to wish-"

The car swerved to the left, towards the barricade at a severe angle.

"I wish-"

There was a crash and a jolt and the car shot off the road and into the air. The engine died and everything seemed very quiet… the family was too far gone with shock and fear to make a sound as the car's nose started to tip downwards and they saw the trees below rushing up to meet them.

They all started screaming then and Kagome tightened her fingers around Inuyasha and uttered the first thing her petrified mind could comprehend. "I wish you'd save them!"

That was all he needed. He barely gave himself time to utter "As you wish…" before he dissipated out of the car and landed back on the road above. Beside him there were three puffs of red mist as Souta, Mrs Higurashi and Grandpa slumped onto the tarmac… all crumpling unconscious to the ground. Humans never really did dissipate very easily. At least they were alive.

A loud crash and following crunching noised echoed up from the valley below.

Inuyasha's head snapped up and he stared at the point where the barricades seemed to have been torn in half… where the car had ploughed through them. He slowly stood up and made his way towards the edge to look down… the echoing crashes had ceased.

In the distance he could already hear the wail of sirens… cars had slowed and stopped a few hundred metres away and people were getting out of their vehicles, running to the scene of the accident.

Accept it hadn't been an accident.

Inuyasha reached the edge and braced his foot against a tree stump as he turned his eyes down.

The car had broken into three major pieces… with bits and pieces lying here and there. Shattered glass and metal lay all around the wreck… the path of destruction through the trees was obvious from where the car had hit the ground and rolled.

Kagome was down there.

Without caring who saw him, he dissipated in a whirl and shot down beside her in an instant. He ran forward towards the wreck and staggered to a halt beside what remained of the vehicle… then he had to stop… he didn't really dare move or breath.

At some point during the fall the doors of the back had been torn off… and not even the seat belt had been able to hold her inside. Kagome now lay half in, half out of the squashed doorway, her legs trapped between the seat and roof… the rest of her lay outside the car.

Her head had been cracked back against that rock beneath her skull… she had metal shrapnel sticking out of her side… and a small trickle of blood ran from the corner of her lips.

Inuyasha felt strangely numb as he slumped to his knees beside her… he didn't dare pick her up, in case he broke her fragile body in half. "Kagome?"

She wasn't dead. If she was dead he would already be asleep in his bottle.

Ever so slowly she dragged in a rattling breath and opened her eyes. That numb feeling inside of him melted and he felt a surge of hope that was so strong it rocked him. "Kagome!" her unfocused gaze slid towards him. "Kagome – say it! You have to wish for me to help you!"

If she didn't… she would die…

Her mouth opened slightly and her lips moved as if trying to form words, her breathing hitched more shallow… but all he heard was quiet, rasping and gurgling sounds. His heart was beginning to squeeze painfully.

"Say it…" he breathed. He lowered his head and held an ear over her mouth, determined to catch even the faintest whisper.

All he caught was the sound of her troubled breathing, and a last hiccup of a gasp before her body went quiet.

For a long time he remained where he was, willing her to breathe again, waiting for her to make a wish that would save her. He slowly lifted his head and looked down at her face. It was strangely peaceful and blank… her eyes still slit open ever so slightly. But she was dead.

In the back of his senses he could already sense Naraku's delight… but most prominently he could feel a dragging on his conscious. He was beginning to get drowsy… but he fought it.

The container was calling him back. The main rule of a Wishbringer… that when a master's life expires, so did the short term freedom from the container, was coming into play. 

Yeah, well it was time to break the rules.

AN: Ta-tah for now.


	16. Without You

****

Author's notes: Ah! Horrible cliff hanger – I'm so sorry! I tried to update as fast as I could so I wouldn't leave you all hanging. Hopefully this should calm everyone down and stem the death threats I've been receiving lately…

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 16

Without You…

Someone was holding her hand. That was probably the first thing she was aware of when she finally came around. She could vaguely hear her mother and her Grandfather conversing nearby in quiet voices, and judging by the soft, cool hand that gripped hers, it was her mother who held her hand.

The first thing Kagome did was squeeze her hand back and open her eyes as she drew up another hand to stifled a yawn. "What time is it?" she squinted at her wrist watch to find out… only she wasn't wearing her watch anymore. Instead she was wearing a paper bangle with her name and date of birth scribbled on it.

She quickly looked to her mother and Grandpa and saw them smiling at her, in that disturbing way they used when something had happened – be it bad or good.

There was a clatter somewhere nearby and Kagome sat up so suddenly in her bed that she nearly got a head rush.

"You shouldn't do that, dear." She felt her mother press down on her shoulders to get her to lie back, but Kagome was too busy looking around to pay any attention.

"Why am I in hospital?" she asked quickly, darting a startled look around her ward. There were two other empty beds in there with her and a vase of dry flowers on her bedside table. "What happened? Where's Souta? Where's Inuyasha?"

"Souta just went to the vending machine." Her mother explained. "But… don't you remember what happened?"

"We were coming home…" Kagome frowned as she tried to pick at her memory. "We were driving and… and I remember we kept swerving…" she looked down at herself and slowly took in the numerous bruises and graces that covered the exposed skin on her arms. Other than those few scratches, she felt perfectly fine… except… She snapped her head up to look at her family. "Did we crash?"

"We don't remember much either." Grandpa offered.

"I lost control of the car and it went off the road…" Mrs Higurashi winced apologetically at her daughter. "It was amazing none of us were seriously injured. I think us three were thrown out of the car before it fell… you went down with it but you've only sustained minimal injuries. The paramedics were impressed with you."

But there had been a fifth person in that car… "What about Inuyasha? Was he thrown free too? He's ok, right?"

Grandpa and Mrs Higurashi traded tense looks… Kagome hated it when they did. "Well…" Her mother began slowly. "We _think_ he was thrown free like the rest of us… I mean… we were all nearest a door – and you being in the middle was trapped inside… and if _you _survived then we're pretty sure he survived too."

"What – what do you mean by that?" Kagome stammered. "You're pretty sure? Where is he – why aren't you sure?"

"Well, we didn't find any body around the crash sight so we're assuming he walked away ok." her mother turned to look at Grandpa. "But I would have thought he'd have stayed to let us know… don't you think?"

Kagome slumped back down onto her rigid hospital pillow, her heart thudding a little too fast in her chest. They didn't understand… they didn't know that he was a Wishbringer – that if he had died he wouldn't have left any _body _to be found. When Inuyasha died he turned into a cloud and drifted away on the breeze… but…

Wishbringers didn't die from car crashes did they…? Or did they? 

And what about his bottle?

"Mom – have you seen that coke bottle anywhere?" she asked quickly.

"What bottle?" her mother blinked.

"That ratty one that I always carry around with me."

"I can't understand why you wouldn't let me throw that away – I mean, it's empty isn't it?" her mother shrugged. "Well, the people who picked up the car retrieved what survived of our luggage… though I didn't see that bottle with it."

Kagome's breathing was getting a little too choppy for her own good. What if the bottle had been broken in the crash? What if he was gone… what if he was really gone…

"I-I…" Kagome struggled to sort her thoughts out. "I don't want to stay here, I wanna go home."

"The doctor says that we could leave as soon as he checks you." Her mother told her gently. "Just to make sure there isn't any concussion or hidden damage. He thinks you might have hit your head."

Which probably explained why it felt so sore… but she ignored the pain in favour of continuing to fret about Inuyasha. She needed to find his bottle and see if he was ok… see if it was broken…

"Oh!" Mrs Higurashi suddenly sat up. "Do you know where Inuyasha's foster family lives? Only it's probably best that we contact them in case he's there with them… or in case he's not."

Kagome just shook her head. "I don't know where he comes from…" she sighed and turned her gaze to the stark florescent light tube above her on the ceiling. "He's always just been around… you know…"

"Don't worry, he'll turn up." Her mother reassured her.

^_^

As soon as the doctor had checked Kagome out to make sure she really was ok, he announced her as fit as fiddle and ready to go home. Once again he expressed how surprised he was that Kagome had survived the fall at all. Seeing as how she'd been pinned inside the vehicle and banged her head on a particularly nasty rock. She should have been dead, but she was walking away with only a few cuts and bruises.

"That's more than what can be said for my car." Mrs Higurashi said in dismay as they took the taxi back home.

Along the way, Kagome looked up to see them travelling down the same road as before… and spotted the broken barricade that they must have crashed through which was now penned off with some police tape. She looked around desperately for some sign of Inuyasha… perhaps he was wandering around the hill looking lost and confused with the bottle in his hand. Yet the likeliness of that was not so likely.

She sighed as she sat back down. Souta must have read her thoughts. "I wonder where Inuyasha went to?" He mused. "I mean… he must have survived – because he's like ten times more tough than us."

Kagome stared dully at the leather seat beside her scratched up thigh.

"Maybe he hit his head and got amnesia." Souta went a little vacant as his imagination swept him away. "And then he wondered off and joined this underground Mafia thing – and so because he doesn't remember who he is he'll start working for them to make a living for himself. And he'll be the baddest and the best and because he's so cool and strong, he'll work himself into being the boss of the Mafia and he'll be ruling all the drug traffic in Japan and dealing out assassinations to 'guests' who don't pay back their loans and stuff."

Kagome and Mrs Higurashi shot him two very incredulous looks and Souta jumped as though he'd been zapped. "Hey – Inuyasha could be the head of the Mob!" he suddenly grinned. "That would be so cool knowing someone like that… we could get favours off of him 'cause we're friends of his, right?"

"Yes, but if he had amnesia he wouldn't remember us would he?" Grandpa pointed out.

"Ah…" Souta nodded. "Ok, so maybe he hasn't got amnesia and just wondered off and joined the Mafia for giggles? And then we'd still get favours from him."

"If we found him." Grandpa put in.

"That would be useful I suppose." Mrs Higurashi said thoughtfully. "Knowing someone in the Mafia and getting favours… because our hedge really does need trimming. And I never really did like those horrible trolls up the road… we could get someone to do away with them."

"What? The Hashimotos'?" Grandpa gave her a startled look.

"No – the little doll trolls with colourful hair that the daughter puts in the front bedroom window." She explained. "They give me the shivers every time I drive past, it would be nice to find them gone one morning."

"Guys!" Kagome suddenly broke in. "Inuyasha isn't in the Mafia."

"Deny it all you want." Souta sighed at her.

"Look – we still have to find him!" Kagome gasped at them all. "We still don't know whether or not he's alive!"

"Oh he's alive." Her mother nodded. "They didn't find his body remember? So he's obviously gotten up and walked away-"

"-So he could join the Mafia and line people up against the wall to shoot them up with Tommy guns like they do in those-"

"Souta, shut up!" Kagome snapped a little more harshly than she'd intended. Fortunately Souta was of the hardy variety and insults and snaps just bounced off of him like rubber. He just shrugged and went back to watching the trees flash by outside.

Kagome sank down miserably in her seat and prayed that her fears weren't correct.

The arrival home wasn't very gallant and welcoming, though Kagome had doubted it would be. All she really had to do to settle back into the old house was drag her suitcase up the stairs, dump the contents in her chest of drawers and then sit down on the bed to bask in the afterglow of her feelings. She was confused, upset, angry… and perhaps a little hungry. But most of all she felt worried, and very alone. With a groan she hung her head in her heads and began wracking her brains to try and remember what had happened yesterday.

She didn't remember much past the point of leaving the airport, but she tried to anyway. There were scraps of recollection of a game between her and her brother… Yellow Car and Bugs. The car swerving sharply into another car… But that was all she could retrieve…

"Where is he?" she whispered aloud and looked around her room as if that would produce some kind of answer. This didn't provide much inspiration, so she pushed herself up and looked out the window instead.

So far it didn't look good. Any one of four things could have happened to Inuyasha. Firstly, he may have had his bottle smashed and was dead… Secondly, Naraku may have gotten his hands on Inuyasha _and _the bottle… and thirdly, he may have just misplaced himself…

The last option was that he really had ambled off and joined the Mafia. Kagome wouldn't put it past him.

^_^

Mrs Higurashi looked around the scene of devastation with folded arms and a light frown. "Look at this mess…"

Kagome didn't say anything as she picked her way through the remains of the car wreck. Most of it had been taken away, but a lot of the general rubble still lay around, mixed in with the ferns and roots of the trees. She stopped next to the place where she'd been found lying. "I didn't think it was this bad…"

"The car was a total write off, of course." Her mother said quietly. "It was a miracle and a blessing that we all got out alive… though I still don't remember how…"

Kagome crouched down and touched the surface of a rock that seemed to be stained with a dark brown liquid. Her own blood maybe?

Somehow she knew that they should have all died in that crash. No one should have gotten out alive, least of all Kagome.

Inuyasha must have done something… it was the only explanation.

"Thank god we had insurance, eh?" Grandpa commented as he approached the two. Souta was still off in the trees collecting little bits of metal as souvenirs.

A glint of light caught Kagome's eye and she turned quickly to look over towards a crop of bushes between some trees. At once she darted over and scooped up the one thing she had persuaded her family to come for…

The coke bottle.

Kagome hastily turned it over in her hands, checking and rechecking for flaws, scratches or signs of any breakage. To her relief… she found that it was in perfect condition, save for a few white scratches on the plastic, but they had always been there.

But then the question arose. If his bottle was in tact – then why wasn't Inuyasha showing himself to her?

"Why…?" she gazed at the bottle in confusion. "Where the hell is he…?"

"Who? Inuyasha?" Souta toddled up to take a look at what she held. "And people think I collect weird stuff."

Kagome glanced down at him.

"Did you know that Mom called the police?" Souta told her. "She's put Inuyasha on their list of missing people… so if anyone sees him… we'll get a call."

"Yeah…"

"Some of the witnesses to the crash said they saw a guy fitting Inuyasha's description." As he said this, Souta scratched his head as if puzzled.

"What did they say?" Kagome asked quickly.

"Well… they said he was standing on the road up there one minute," Souta pointed to the road above them. "And then he was gone the next, like he'd just vanished into thin air."

"Did anyone see him after that?"

"Kagome, they obviously must have imagined it. People don't just disappear, right?" Souta sniffed. "Well… even if they did see him after that, I wouldn't know. That's all the police man told us when they took you out of the wreck."

"Oh…" Kagome sighed softly and turned to carry the bottle back to the car they now had on loan since their original one had been destroyed the day before. Her mother joined her side and put a comforting arm around her shoulder. Neither of them spoke for a while until her mother gave her shoulders a squeeze and placed a kiss on her temple.

"He'll turn up." Was all she said. Kagome just continued to stare at the ground as they walked back.

^_^

On the second day of the family's return to the old house, Kagome was becoming more than a little worried and stressed. Inuyasha still hadn't turned up, despite the number of threats, orders and wishes she'd shouted into the air. She'd even tried holding the bottle in her hands and contacting him through telepathy. It had never worked in the past, and it still didn't work for her now. So she wasn't too let down when it failed.

"Two days!" Kagome ranted as she paced the length of the living room, distracting the others from the Tv. "He's been missing two days and there's not a single word of him to be heard!"

"The police are out there looking…" Her mother tried gently. "The minute he's spotted we'll know, dear."

"Yes but… Inuyasha just isn't the type to be _seen _that way…" Kagome sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "What if something bad has happened to him? And we'd never know because… I never got to say good bye…"

No one said anything to counter this. After two days of searching, even the police had started voicing their doubts that the boy was alive and well, even though his body hadn't been recovered.

"You shouldn't be so pessimistic." Her Grandfather said eventually. "He's probably back home being grounded by his foster parents…"

This did nothing to alleviate Kagome's mood… of course they had no idea that Inuyasha didn't belong to any family or anyone except her… and possibly Naraku. He had no family to house him like a normal teenager…

"That's not what's happened." Kagome snapped bitterly at them. "You wouldn't understand." Now that had sounded rather Inuyasha-like.

Kagome heard her mother sigh gently from the sofa. "Kagome, it's all right to cry if you want. It'll make you feel better."

"Oh will it?" she snapped again in anger as she marched over to sit down heavily on the sofa beside her mother. "Well thank you very much!"

At once Kagome dissolved into tears and fell against her mother's shoulder who quickly pulled her arms around her daughter and rocked her gently with soft comforting noises. The two males in the room shifted uncomfortably at such an unfamiliar display of emotion. It wasn't like Kagome to burst into tears like that and down right bawl on her mother.

Mrs Higurashi stroked Kagome's hair slowly as her daughter buried her face in her blouse. "It's ok… Shh…" her shirt was getting damp with tears now. "It'll turn out ok, Kagome…"

"W-what if he doesn't come back?" Kagome managed to cry out, still in the middle of her flooding tears. "W-what if he's gone…?! For g-good?!"

Her mother was helpless to her questions and could do nothing more than try to soothe her.

^_^

"This'll be the third…" Kagome muttered that night to her ceiling. She lay flat out in bed, still trying to contemplate the possibility that she might never see Inuyasha again. It had already been three days…

Hadn't Inuyasha told her once that Wishbringers couldn't stay away from a master for more than two days?

The cogs in her brain had been turning and she'd been remembering more things.

She'd remembered all the fear that had gone through her mind when they'd shot off the road and into the air. Everyone had screamed around her and what had scared her most was the fact that _they _were scared. So she also remembered the flash wish that she'd made.

To save them… 

She'd been completely oblivious to the fact that she was in danger too… she'd simply seen that her family were about to die and she had done the first thing that had entered her brain.

That must have been the eighth wish… because she didn't remember making another that would spare her own life. She clearly remembered the dawning realisation now of when she'd seen the ground rushing up to her. It all blurred at that point… but she had a feeling – no, in fact she was almost certain that when she'd fallen she'd been alone. But when she'd hit the bottom – there had been someone with her…

And then she'd woken up in hospital.

What had happened back there that she didn't recall? Why wasn't Inuyasha with her now?

A rather strong possibility of what had happened had occurred to her long ago. But until now she'd refused to really accept it as a possibility. What if Naraku had made his third wish? What if he'd wished Inuyasha would die? In which case he would just dissipate into thin air and never return – which would explain why his bottle was still intact…

Another wave of strong emotion was washing over her and she valiantly fought it back down before she started to cry again. She pressed a hand over her mouth and screwed her eyes tightly shut against the prickle of tears.

It was pathetic really… he'd only been gone two days and she was missing him like crazy. In the beginning she would have given anything to get rid of him, but now…

Now she felt like she was losing an arm or a leg…

Kagome felt herself sitting up almost without being conscious of doing so, She knelt on the old dipping mattress of her bed and rested her elbows against the window sill whilst clasping her hands together. She bowed her head until her forehead touched her interlocked fingers and closed her eyes tightly.

Oh dear… she must have been pretty desperate if she was resorting to praying.

"Dear, anyone who is listening to pathetic old me." She whispered, half hoping that if she was humble, someone up there would take pity on her. "Please… if Inuyasha is out there alive… give me some kind of sign? Or return him to me? I know I spoke to you a few weeks ago asking you to remove him… but I really take that back. I'm really falling to pieces without him…"

She trailed off her prayer as her eyes opened slightly and her thoughts started to wander. Was she really falling to pieces? Well… she felt like crying all the time, she missed him like crazy and she was suffering the same symptoms of grief as when she'd lost her friend when she was thirteen… only slightly more milder because there was still a hope he would return to her.

Kagome quickly remembered she was in the middle of a prayer and she was keeping whoever was listening, waiting. "Um… sorry… got distracted. As I was saying, I'd really appreciate it if you sent Inuyasha back to me… I'm getting a little lonely, I suppose. I need someone to talk to… someone my age. And if he's out there… lost… and unable to return to me ever again… if he's dead, please watch over him?"

"Amen."

Kagome whipped around so fast she nearly dealt herself some whiplash. Her neck gave a jab of pain and she slapped a hand up to rub the ache while she tried to peer through the dark room behind her. "Who's there?"

She groped around in the dark beside her until her hand connected with the lamp and new light flooded the small room. Kagome blinked rapidly as it momentarily blinded her, but soon managed to focus a squinted gaze on the person sitting in the dusty arm chair near the door. The arm chair was still covered in the large white dust sheet that she had yet to remove… this didn't seem to matter to the young man sitting there.

He was dark haired, fairly good-looking and young… perhaps in his late teens, early twenties. Judging by the ever so faint and disappearing swirl of royal blue smoke that swirled around him… he'd just popped into that seat without actually _walking _into the room.

"Naraku…" Kagome breathed, a little vehemently.

The stranger regarded her with a mild smile. "Naraku? No. A relative perhaps, but I'm not Naraku."

Kagome pulled the blankets tighter around her form. "Why should I believe you?"

"You shouldn't." The stranger said bluntly. "If you did, I would seriously think you were naïve and dim."

Kagome blinked at him. "You don't sound like him…"

"Good. Because I would be very insulted if I did." The young man ran a finger across the armrest rest of the chest and inspected his digit, as if looking for dust. Kagome had no idea whether he found dust or not, because his expression remained neutral and mild, even when he lowered his hand and looked at her in a penetrating way. "But I didn't come here to discuss any similarities between me and hell-spawn man. I came to ask if you are, or if you are not, Inuyasha's primary master."

Kagome opened her mouth, about to answer, when she stopped herself just in time. Should she answer? She didn't know if this person was good or bad… perhaps it wasn't a great idea to go blabbing information around. So instead she fixed him with a shrewd glare. "I'm not telling you anything. You just said you were a relative of Naraku-"

"Yes. I am." He cut her off. "But then you could also say that Inuyasha is a closer relative to Naraku. If Inuyasha is Naraku's father, then I would undoubtedly be Naraku's grandfather."

Kagome remained non-plussed. "What?"

The stranger sighed deeply, as though patiently getting impatient with her. "Are you or are you not Inuyasha's Master?"

"First tell me who you are." Kagome told him stubbornly.

"You needn't be suspicious of me." The young man said in a slightly offended manner. "I am one who serves Buddha. I am not a suspicious person."

"Yet you still haven't told me your name."

"Miroku." He said breezily, like he made this kind of introduction every day. "A Ninth Generation Wishbringer and one who seeks Inuyasha."

"A ninth generation…" Kagome whispered. Slowly her intuition was sorting out the puzzle. "You… you're the guy who made Inuyasha a Wishbringer."

"And don't I regret? Or I will regret it if I don't-" He suddenly stopped himself short and tried again. "I came to ask you where he is."

"I… I'm not sure if I want to tell you." Kagome said snippily, hoping she gave an air of knowing. "You might be out to get him."

"Do you have any idea how many rules that pesky little Hanyou has broken over the last fifty-four hours?" Miroku said in that mild way of his. "Half of those rules should have been impossible to break, but that doesn't seem to have put a limit to his behaviour."

Kagome's mouth dropped open. "A-are you saying Inuyasha's alive? He's out there somewhere?!"

Miroku blinked slowly at her. "You really don't know where he is, do you?"

It wasn't really a question. Kagome ducked an embarrassed gaze to the floor.

"Well," Miroku stood up easily and folded his arms calmly. "Perhaps you need informing of exactly what has been transpiring these last few days."

Kagome nodded slowly. "Please?"

"I suppose it's only fair to fill you in, since this is partly your fault too." Miroku put a hand to his chin. "Well let's see now… the first rule he broke must have been when he brought you back to life – and not the conventional way either."

"But I never died-"

"Yes you did. For about ten seconds. And if Inuyasha had simply just broken the rule cleanly, you would be a zombie. Soulless. So he made a pig's ear of it and just had to reverse time by fifteen seconds so he could heal your injuries before you dropped dead on him." Miroku smiled placidly. "Of course, you being human, would be unaware of the time shift, but me, and every other unearthly being on this planet suddenly found ourselves repeating the last fifteen seconds of conversation we were having. I in particular had to endure a rather painful slap… twice, thanks to him."

Kagome stared at him.

"And reversing time _and _healing most of your injuries without your permission should have been enough to kill him out flat… and I thought perhaps he _had_ been killed out flat. But then a few hours later more rule breaking occurred."

"What did he do then?" Kagome whispered, a little concerned for Inuyasha.

"Half destroyed Naraku." Miroku didn't look so cross about this though. "Stole half of his life force and used it for himself, with which… I'm guessing it was enough to keep him alive to break just a few more rules."

"So Naraku's half dead…?" Kagome gasped.

"And gone into hiding… though I'm sure he'll recover soon enough…" Miroku looked bewildered now. "Though how on earth he managed to actually _steal_ life from someone like Naraku without the power of a wish behind him is beyond me… But that's not all."

"Oh god…" Kagome nearly grimaced.

"As far as I know, he's managed to _conjure_."

"Conjure?" Kagome frowned. "But he said that's impossible-"

"It _is _impossible." Miroku agreed readily. "He conjured a tin of beans and a tin opener. I don't know how he did it. Though he always had a habit of saying 'I can bend the rules but not break them… yet' so I'm guessing he's finally broken them. So not only has he broken Wishbringer rules, but he's also broken Physic's rules."

"Wow… Inuyasha got turned into a dog once and that really sapped his energy… how can he do all these things without me wishing them on him." Kagome wondered. "Have you been watching him?"

"Well, not closely. I've always picked up on the things he does… part and parcel of being the one who created him. He's my responsibility so I have to keep him out of trouble." Miroku scowled slightly. "Which is getting harder and harder to do."

Kagome chewed her lip.

"And he's also broken the final rule – the golden rule of being a Wishbringer. By staying away from his primary master for more than forty-eight hours." Miroku sighed. "It's my duty to deal with him now… or else if he keeps up this rule breaking he'll get our whole line exterminated."

"Exterminated? What's that supposed to mean?" she hadn't liked the sound of that.

"It means that the First will bring it down on our heads. Inuyasha will end up getting Naraku killed, himself killed, me killed, my sire killed, and his sire killed and so on until theirs no one in our line left. That's how the First deals with trouble makers. He wipes out everyone associated with the troublesome one."

Kagome remained in silent shock for a moment. "And… who's the first?"

"The First is the true Wishbringer. The one who came before all others and has always been a Wishbringer since time began. He is the only one of the first generation." Miroku shrugged slightly. "While the rest of us have limitations on our wishes and have to abide by rules, the First can grant whatever wish he wants… though only one at a time."

"And he'd really do Inuyasha in if-"

"If Inuyasha doesn't stop messing around. Yes." Miroku dropped his arms and gave her a serious look. "The minute he returns to you… _if _he decides to return to you, you should inform me. It's in everyone's best interests if I kill Inuyasha before he gets everyone killed too by his carelessness. My own master is active… so you'll be able to contact me whenever you want. Just give me a shout."

Not likely. Kagome smiled and nodded anyway, thinking that was the best way to get rid of him the fastest. The Wishbringer, Miroku dissipated in a similar fashion to Inuyasha… disappearing in a small whirl of blue smoke that quickly vanished in his wake. 

Kagome stayed sat there in stunned silence for a few minutes, slowly assimilating all the knowledge that had been given to her. She eventually lay down, this time with a new hope thrumming in her chest. Inuyasha was alive! In trouble… but alive! Somehow she just knew he would return to her.

And he did. That very night.

AN: Wow… a whole chapter without Inuyasha turning up once. That has to be some kind of record for me…


	17. The New Tutor

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Author's Notes: I know people want me to get on with Life Exchange (I get too many reviews and emails pleading for me to finish unfinished fics) so let me tell you now that when there is a lull in updating, it usually means I have temporarily gone out of my writing mood. But I usually get my writing mood back quite quickly so you shouldn't have to wait too long. Trust me, I know how horrible it is when fics seem to stop being updated and you feel like throttling the author in case more chapters drop out of their pockets… but please understand it isn't that easy (though how I wish it were). 

And for those who want more fluff between Inuyasha and Kagome… you may like this chapter.

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 17

The New Tutor

According to the little glowing alarm clock on Kagome's bedside table, it was getting close to two o'clock in the morning when she woke up. It wasn't so unusual to be having a restless night… somehow when Inuyasha wasn't around she never slept well.

There was not much she could really do other than try to get back to sleep. Only she was wide awake now and not even remotely tired… but she tried anyway. With a weary kind of sigh she rolled onto her back and closed her eyes gently as she tried to think of sleepy things… like… kittens… ice cream… roller coasters…

A cold, wet hand closed over Kagome's mouth and her eyes snapped open at once.

"Naraku." She whispered against his hand. Though it came out more like a quiet, "_Mawamphf_."

The person above her glared… golden, amber eyes piercing into hers. She realised her mistake at once and a happy little feeling fluttered through her stomach. All she wanted to do right then was leap up and squeeze Inuyasha to death… but he seemed to have other ideas.

"I guess I have some explaining to do." He said, a little miserably. "And while I do it I don't want a peep out of you, ok?"

Kagome's happy little fluttering feeling faded and her smile disappeared beneath his hand as she took in his appearance.

She'd looked in the mirror when she was ill a few days ago and had cringed at what she'd seen… but right now, Inuyasha looked ten times worse. He was pale, drenched in water (even though it wasn't raining outside), and the hand pressed to her mouth was giving away the slightest tremor of fatigue… or nerves. There were dark smudges under his eyes and for some reason his haori was missing again… but what probably worried her most was that his white undershirt was stained a dark red over his heart.

The urge to squeeze him to death melted away into the urge to hold him tenderly and whisper comforting words in his ear. She had to blink in surprise at that strange urge and began chanting something familiar in her head.

__

He's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk, he's a jerk…

She tried to push her feelings towards a different urge… of wanting to batter him for making her worry so much. But somehow she couldn't sum up the courage… not when his hand trembled like that of a feeble little kitten. Well… not so feeble seeing as how he was holding her down and shutting her up pretty effectively.

"Ok, now look… a lot of things have been happening recently-"

__

"Mrmphf mmph mm mmrmphf?"

"I was afraid you'd ask that…" he gave a pained winced. "Well… all over the place really. You see, I did something to Naraku and then he kinda disappeared so I went looking for him to finish him off… but then I got lost…"

Kagome blinked in surprise. _"Mrmph?"_

"Yes. Lost." He sniffed and wiped a hand across his face to brush away the water clinging to him. "And well… I was on this mountain thing and I was getting really hungry and since I'd lost the ability to… um… what's the word… relocate like I normally do. And I couldn't bring any food to me… so I had to draw it out of the air. It was horrible, Kagome."

She gave him a sympathetic rub on the arm.

"I had to open a can of beans with my teeth."

__

"Mmphf mrmph mmph."

"How'd you know?" he gave her a guilty look. "Ok, yeah, I conjured a can opener as well…"

__

"Mmphf mrphf?"

"Well then I passed out… upside down – but that's a long story so I'll tell you later. I planned to come back when forty eight hours were up but I overslept." He shrugged limply. "Nearly didn't wake up at all until it started to rain. Fortunately stealing enough of Naraku's life kept me alive long enough… and even though I wanted to keep searching for him I figured… well… that you'd be worried, and it wouldn't be fair to… well… worry you. So I came back." He looked very uncomfortable for a moment before hurriedly adding, "And I also came back to catch some time out in the bottle."

They watched each other for a moment before Inuyasha slowly drew his hand from her mouth and let it fall to his lap. They continued to stare at each other in silence. "Well?" Inuyasha frowned. "Aren't you going to say something?"

Kagome made a strangled little noise in her throat as she launched out of her bed and threw her arms around his neck. They probably would have fallen off the bed if Inuyasha hadn't balanced out the momentum by leaning into her the very moment he saw her move for him.

Kagome nearly fainted from sheer relief when she felt him there in her arms – solid, breathing and shivering like most people did when they were alive. He wasn't fading into nothing and he wasn't going to be leaving any time soon – not if she had a say in it! Though she very nearly fainted anyway when she felt his arms lock around her middle and pull her closer. She almost pulled away in shock…

Last time she'd tried this he'd gone nuts about it.

"Are you ok?" she muttered, her chin pressed tightly against his shoulder, strangely aware of how warm and a smooth his neck was against her cheek, despite him being wet and shivering. "You're shaking all over and you're wet and cold-"

"I'm ok." he cut her off abruptly.

He must have had a fever or something… because he wasn't pushing her away like he normally would. Well, someone was looking down on her from up there and smiling… she wasn't going to second-guess such an opportunity as this and held him tighter as she rubbed his back and shoulder blades, as if trying to warm him up a little. "I was so worried – I thought Naraku had gotten to you…" she whispered her greatest fear to him.

"But I'm ok." he insisted, giving a slightly more violent shiver.

"No you're not – you're sick." She argued.

"But I _will_ be ok." he sighed. "I will now…"

His wet clothes were beginning to soak Kagome's pyjamas as well, causing slight tremors of cold to run through her, but she made no move to pull away. She was just too busy delighting in the fact that Inuyasha was alive and… sort of well. She stiffened, however, when he took one particularly deep breath.

Did he just smell her hair?

Should she say something…?"

"You put perfume in your hair don't you?" Inuyasha suddenly said, probably in an effort to change the subject.

"Uh…" Kagome stammered a little self-consciously. Her hands tightened on his shoulders, debating whether or not she should rip him in half for making that comment. "Yeah… sometimes I put it on my brush and comb it through my hair… you know…"

"Oh…" he said simply. "What is it?"

Kagome really didn't know what he was trying to do here. "Cherry bark and almonds."

"It's nice."

"You're changing the subject aren't you?" she said brusquely, mostly to change the subject as well, back to something which wouldn't make her face so hot. "Don't be sneaky."

"I'm not sneaky!" he protested automatically and drew back a little.

"What I want to know is how you were able to break so many rules in so little time when only breaking one should have been enough to kill you." She glared at him suspiciously for a moment. "Or are you really Naraku in disguise?"

His irritable gaze softened slightly and she found herself losing her glare in return. "I guess… nothing is impossible when you have the right kind of strength behind you…"

"Meaning?" she prompted.

His gaze turned irritable again, evidently annoyed by her lack of comprehension. "Meaning you can do anything you bloody well want to when you really need to."

This reply still didn't satisfy Kagome but she let it go. "Well… at least you're alive I suppose."

"Oh. Sorry to disappoint you."

"Stop being rude."

"Stop nagging then."

"You can't be civil for more than two minutes can you – you've always got to be grumpy haven't you?!"

"Well maybe I would feel better if I hadn't been wandering around the mountains for the last few days, wondering if I'll survive to see another sunrise or if I'll have the strength to return here at all or stand up to Naraku if he decides to come after me while I'm weak and vulnerable!" he snapped, rising off the bed and releasing her arms which he'd been clasping loosely. "I'm tired, cold, wet and hungry and I stepped on a nail so now I'm worried about tetanus – and I slept upside down, hanging from a tree by my foot – and then I had to eat beans! I _hate _beans!"

"So why did you conjure them?!" she demanded.

"Because they're simple! Simple and easy to digest – which was what I needed because I felt like I was going to throw-up through the whole ordeal."

"Whine, whine, whine and whinge! You only came back to complain to me you wimp!"

"What did you say?!" he yelled. Kagome mildly wondered if they'd woken up the rest of the household with their rowing. "I risk my life for you and you call me a wimpy whinger?!"

"Well I was going to thank you but then you started shouting at me!" she snapped back at him. "Some chivalrous hero you are!"

"Maybe I should have just let you die!"

"Maybe!"

"I'm so angry at you right now I can barely look at you!"

"Then why don't you leave?!"

"I think I will!"

"But not for long though, right?" Kagome asked quickly.

"No, I'll just catch some sleep." He answered seriously before remembering the argument. "Well I'm going then!"

"Good riddance!"

"Goodbye!"

"Goodbye yourself!"

Just before he dissipated into the air, he shot her a quirky little grin. Kagome grinned back and she knew for certain that neither of them were actually mad at the other. She flopped back down into bed and made a mental note to warn him about Miroku in the morning… and possibly to tie Inuyasha up so she could check for any wounds and injuries he might be hiding.

Unless of course that blood on his chest wasn't his…

She had to wonder, though. How on earth had he summoned enough energy to break all those rules and stay alive? He'd said anything was possible if you had the right strength behind you… but what was that supposed to mean? 

Kagome finally decided to stop picking at her brain, it wasn't going to get her anywhere. So instead she just huddled down in her bed and smiled to herself, basking in secret joy that Inuyasha was back safe and sound. She'd never say it out loud, but inside her head there was no one to hear her but herself. She liked Inuyasha… he may have been a jerk, and perhaps he still was, but he was a loveable jerk.

^_^

"Morning!"

Kagome groaned sleepily and tried to block out the young hyperactive voice that had just bounced into her bedroom. Perhaps if she just pulled the covers over her head and slithered down in bed, he wouldn't notice she was in there.

No such luck. Souta scrambled to the bed and started tugging at her blanket. "Guess who's back from the Mafia?" he called.

"Grandpa?" Kagome sat up as her bed cover was dragged off. "What… - oh!" she suddenly remembered and snapped awake in an instant. "Inuyasha!"

"He's downstairs!" Souta grinned and scampered off again.

Kagome instantly rolled off the bed in her hurry to get changed into her day clothes. She tripped up several times and all but fell down the stairs in her hurry to get down them. Evidently her mother heard her fairy footsteps coming. "In here!" Mrs Higurashi called from the kitchen when she stumbled to a halt at the foot of the stairs.

Inuyasha was sitting on the table when Kagome entered, listening attentively to Mrs Higurashi scolding him for being so clumsy and forgetful as she tended to a wound on his chest.

"Kagome's been worried sick of course." Her mother filled him in as she pressed a white square of fabric over the wound above his heart. Kagome had to get over her disappointment that her mother had beaten her to undressing Inuyasha as the older woman continued. "What on earth happened to cause this mess?"

"Fell on a rake." He replied with a one shouldered shrug. "Those things are dangerous."

"I hear they kill forty thousand people a year." Grandpa rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You're lucky to have survived."

"Thanks." Inuyasha nodded in his direction, with a slightly perturbed look.

"And look how skinny he is!" Mrs Higurashi suddenly broke in, finishing her work on the injury to stand back and look critically at Inuyasha. "Doesn't anybody feed you?"

"Well, not really-"

"He's fine, mom, leave him alone." Kagome cut in quickly, not at all keen on her attention being drawn to Inuyasha's physique. "He's supposed to be that way."

"I don't know." Mrs Higurashi still look dubious as she poked Inuyasha in the ribs with a finger cold enough to make him squirm. "You need more meat on your bones boy."

"Well it's in case I come across any man-eating cannibals." Inuyasha explained, as the woman helped him into his cleaned and ironed undershirt. "Given a choice, a cannibal would rather eat Kagome."

Said girl just glowered at him. "You just open your mouth and balderdash comes out, doesn't it?" she shook her head in disgrace. "Man-eating cannibals… what else would they be? Vegie-eating cannibals?"

Somewhere off in the house a bell rung. Everyone in the kitchen blinked around them in surprise before Mrs Higurashi voiced her opinion. "What on earth was that?"

"That was the doorbell." Grandpa said without looking up from his paper.

"We have a doorbell?" Souta seemed surprised. "I didn't know that."

"No one's ever paid us a visit, that's why." Kagome sighed. She really hated being in such an isolated place like this.

Mrs Higurashi was already moving out of the kitchen. "That'll be your tutor, Kagome."

"Tutor?" she echoed uncertainly. She'd completely forgotten about her education, of course. It happened when insane abominations were out to get her… and among all the other strange things that had happened to her, it was hard to remember the simpler things in life.

Kagome and Inuyasha traded equally dubious looks across the kitchen as they heard Mrs Higurashi welcome in someone down the hall. A few moments later Kagome's mother entered, followed by none other than Hojo.

"Hojo!" Kagome cried before the boy could utter a syllable.

Inuyasha watched in utter astonishment as she ran up to the surprised boy and grabbed his hand. "I must be daydreaming!" she squealed in delight. "What are you doing here?!"

"Well, your mother said that you somehow managed to lose your place in your new school, Higurashi." Hojo told her in complete politeness. "So she asked if I could help you catch up with the work you were missing before the entry exams for high school."

"Oh – you wonderful boy – you came all this way?" Kagome smiled at him.

Now, Inuyasha thought this was very unfair. He'd saved her life and gone through hell to make sure Naraku didn't pull the same stunt twice with her, and she hadn't even uttered a single word of thanks so far. This smiley guy turns up from no where to give her hard algebra problems and scientific equations and she calls him a 'wonder-boy'?

Something just seemed totally wrong with that.

"Well I'm only going to be here for about three hours, so we better get started." Hojo told her with a cheerful enough smile.

"_Only _three hours?" grumbled Inuyasha, but he went unheard by the others.

Kagome nodded in agreement with Hojo and ushered him out of the kitchen. "My room's this way." She could be heard telling him as their voices faded up the stairs.

"You're letting her have strange boys in her bedroom?" Inuyasha snapped a question to Mrs Higurashi who shrugged blandly. "I let you in her room didn't I?" she replied.

Souta snorted with laughter, before quickly ducking out of the kitchen so as to avoid being hit with Inuyasha's temper. Grandpa went back to reading his paper and Mrs Higurashi smiled lightly as she went back to cleaning up the bloody cotton swabs she'd been using to dress Inuyasha's wound. Inuyasha glanced between the two older Higurashi's, waiting for someone to say how unfair Kagome was being towards him. Here he was with a stab wound all the way down to his heart and she was off flirting with the nearest eligible boy?

But neither said anything, and the only sounds in the house was Souta starting up a new game on the playstation and an anonymous female voice upstairs laughing at some stupid boy's joke.

"I'm sure she's glad you're back really." Mrs Higurashi said quickly, almost to cover up the sound of Kagome's laughter. "She really did miss you very much while you were gone. She even cried."

Inuyasha blinked at her for a moment before covering for his own surprise with a scoff. "Yeah, whatever." He slipped off the table and exited the kitchen with a slight temper smouldering under the surface. As soon as he was out of everyone's sights he dissipated into the air and landed with a heavy thud on the ground beside the oil tank outside.

"Dammit… I missed…" he glared up at the top of the tank where he'd been aiming to appear on.

Well… he'd never been much of a whiz at dissipating. His disappearance into thin air was always slightly too messy and smoky, and his appearance usually made people jump. And if he was emotionally unbalanced he tended to make loud cracking sounds when he disappeared which often had people clutching their ears.

No, he'd never been good at the dissipating thing. Not a natural born talent, but he got by. His ninth generation Wishbringer had told him the scant basics… but not much more than that. Inuyasha was obliged to blame all his problems on that guy… if he could just get his hands on that twit he'd throttle him to death!

Of course, his inability to land on his targets was probably due to his current weak state. He acknowledged this with a pained grunt as he pulled himself up by his arms onto the tank… the wound on his chest went taut and gave a twinge of pain. He ignored it as he settled down onto his back and stared up at the sky. If he turned his head ever so slightly he could see Kagome's window and from this point he could just about make out the fuzzy red mop of hair that belonged to that _boy_.

Three hours alone with that _boy…_Inuyasha could handle three hours alone. He could entertain himself, right? Just… maybe he was a little miffed that Kagome wasn't paying him a little more attention right now.

Absently, he tapped a finger against the padded bandage over his heart and scowled at the overcast clouds above. It seemed as though the storm he'd been caught in earlier had followed him east, away from the mountains. Typical. The ominous and barely audible sound of rumbling thunder echoed in the distance. Inuyasha estimated it would probably be over the house in a couple of hours. Knowing Inuyasha's luck he would be caught out in the rain all over again if that Hojo boy didn't leave.

A few minutes drifted by… Inuyasha half listened to Kagome chatting away to Hojo, catching up on gossip of old friends that Inuyasha personally didn't understand. And, as what tended to happen, his thoughts wandered and he found himself dwelling darkly on what had happened over the last three days.

He wondered if it had been a mistake. Not the saving Kagome part – he'd never consider that a mistake… but he wondered if perhaps he shouldn't have gone after Naraku so soon.

Kagome had asked him where he'd managed to get the strength to defy all those rules… and it had made him wonder a little as well. It was just that… when he'd seen Kagome lying there – giving up and going to sleep hadn't been an option. He just couldn't watch another girl die… especially not innocent little Kagome who didn't know what it was like to suffer through life like him and Kikyo.

Inuyasha drew an arm across his eyes and blotted out the light. Kagome losing her innocent spark of life had pushed him a little too far… and once he'd saved her and seen her peacefully unconscious instead of dead, all he'd been able to think about was getting her revenge. He couldn't allow an irrepressible person like Kagome to be repressed like that.

So the minute she was safe, the moment the paramedics had gone down to her and the brigade had begun to cut her free of the car wreck, he'd searched for Naraku and found him, in the mountains. What on earth Naraku was doing in the mountains was beyond Inuyasha. How on earth he had managed to find Naraku was also beyond Inuyasha. But somehow he'd done it, all with a horrible burning sensation in his chest which he liked to call something beyond livid rage.

Naraku had taunted him about Kagome… demeaned her and related the irony with Kikyo's history. He'd laughed about how that history seemed to like repeating itself, and perhaps, would Inuyasha's next master be Kagome's reincarnation – and would he kill her too?

Clumsily, Inuyasha had done the first thing that had come to his mind. He'd literally ripped Naraku's life out of him to replenish his own depleted supplies… the result had been the transfer of energy. But it also resulted in Naraku's chest being ripped open… something that wouldn't heal easily. Inuyasha's heart had been pierced as well as the life had entered him… but that had been an acceptable price to pay, and it was already healing.

Naraku had fled, probably to give himself time to recover the loss of life. The monster wouldn't be out of the running for long.

At that point Inuyasha would have happily given anything to return to Kagome. Perhaps her smile would have made his headache seem less painful. Or perhaps her endless questions and demands for explanations would make his head explode. He couldn't return to her either way… he'd wasted everything he'd had… he didn't have the energy to summon anything. He couldn't zip himself back to Kagome in the blink of an eye either, he would have to walk. And seeing as how he was lost, walking back wouldn't be very productive.

So he'd waited until he'd worked up enough energy to break one last rule. He'd conjured a teeny tiny can of beans… the first thing he'd thought of. He'd even been too pathetic to open it himself and had regretted it really, until the can opener had landed in his hand like a prayer.

After that he'd passed out and woken up in the middle of a storm. By then he'd managed to gain enough energy to flash straight back to Izu in a millisecond… the first thing he'd done was go check on Kagome to make sure his little trick on her hadn't backfired.

She'd been alive. That had warmed his heart.

But rather suddenly his heart was blasted cold.

He'd saved her. Rather than just stand back and let her die he had stepped in and broken the rules. Did that mean he preferred Kagome to Kikyo? Did that mean he was beginning to get attached to her in a way that he really shouldn't?

Her tinkling laughter drifted down through her open window, laughing at another one of Homo's jokes. The rumble of thunder was getting closer, and as if on some automated cue, it began to rain lightly.

Inuyasha lifted his arm off his face and blinked up at the watering heavens, a few rain drops splattered straight into his eyes and he scrunched his face up as she quickly sat up, though quickly regretted the action when pain shot right through his chest.

But really only one thing throbbed in his skull right then. _He couldn't get attached to Kagome like this_. He'd saved her, yes, good for her. But he couldn't let his heart continue down the path it was heading… He couldn't risk hurting them both when all ten wishes were up. He couldn't risk hurting either of them if Naraku got to them…

The cookie would crumble… so to speak.

Inuyasha made to gracefully leap off the oil tank to the ground, yet somehow he misjudged the distance to the ground and his hand slipped on the edge of the large metal box. He plummeted to the ground and landed face down in the earth that was quickly being turned into mud with the new onslaught of rain.

"Oh fuck it." He muttered angrily to no one in particular. Why did all these bad things have to happen to him? Why did he always have to be the underdog?

"Well you don't look like a very happy bunny."

Inuyasha slowly pushed himself onto his knees and wiped the rain out of his eyes as he turned a smouldering glare upwards and locked eyes with the one person he really didn't need to be getting involved in this problem.

Miroku smiled faintly down at the dirty Hanyou and straightened to fold his arms impassively. Somehow, despite the rain coming down in sheets, Miroku seemed to remain completely dry and not a hair out of place.

"You brought the dead back to life." Miroku said slowly, his placid smile fading to a sober glare.

Inuyasha swallowed hard, fighting back the urge to snarl at him. "I know."

"You abandoned your master for more than two days."

"Yes, I-"

"You conjured."

"That was a-"

"You injured one of your masters without permission."

"Because he was being an ass-"

"You used your power outside of wishing."

"I can-"

"You exposed your abilities to civilians."

"I didn't have a choice, it was-"

"_And _you created the abomination Naraku." Miroku's eyes hardened slightly. "An abomination which has managed to create more chaos and disorder than you have, without your knowledge."

Inuyasha glared at him angrily. "So? What are you going to do about it?"

Miroku broke off his glare for a moment to squint up at the pouring heavens, as if gouging how long the rain would carry on. "You should know, Inuyasha, that when a Wishbringer becomes as disobedient and disorderly as you, the First has methods of dealing with them." He switched his gaze back on the Hanyou. "Or didn't I teach you that?"

"You taught me nothing." Inuyasha hissed. His patience reaching the end of its tether. Maybe he could perhaps break one more rule and snap this crackpot's head off.

"The First doesn't like Naraku you know." Miroku told him in a balanced tone. "If Naraku makes any more trouble, the First will kill him."

"Oh good." That didn't sound so bad.

"To ensure a creation like Naraku never graces this earth again, the First will also kill you."

"Oh…" that wasn't so good.

"And to make sure another like you is never created, the First will then kill me."

"Oh good."

"Unless of course, the First goes straight to the killing you part." Miroku narrowed his eyes ever so slightly. "I'm terribly sorry to say, but my sense of self-preservation has always been particularly strong. I don't wish to die, no pun intended there. And if you go on living then I will surely die."

"Meaning?" Inuyasha snapped.

"Meaning…" Miroku crouched down so he was eye level with Inuyasha. "I have to sever any link between me and Naraku… and me and you. You're the link. So it is my duty to kill you."

Inuyasha flinched back, automatically trying to raise some power to his own defence. Too bad he'd used it all up on the rule breaking. "You can't – you'll kill yourself if you use your power outside of wishes!"

"This is my born duty. I don't need a power of a wish to kill you." Miroku said simply as he raised a quick hand to press against Inuyasha's forehead.

Inuyasha tried to reel back and out of range… but his whole body seemed shot through with paralysis. Miroku's hand was getting uncomfortably hot… and Inuyasha couldn't do a thing about it.

"For what it's worth… I'm sorry."

Inuyasha didn't hear the last part of what he said, not when his words were drowned out by the blinding pain that racked through his head.

AN: Another cliff hanger? Well I'll try to update soon and ease the pain…


	18. Normality

****

Author's Notes: It seems everyone seems to be going away on holiday, except for me. Well, sorry for those who went on holiday before I did this update, I tried to go as fast as I could but I've been busy enjoying the great weather down here! It's so hot and the sky is so blue… I think Manchester suddenly moved to Spain or something ^_^

Anyway, chapter eighteen already? Wow… time flies – I still feel like I'm on chapter nine.

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 18

Normality

When the pain shot through Inuyasha's head, he had naturally assumed that Miroku had dealt him the killing blow. So it confused him when Miroku suddenly pulled away from him, blinking in surprise and looking upwards to something above Inuyasha, and even more confusing when something fell into the mood beside him.

The pain faded rapidly to a dull throb and he reached up to rub his head as he looked down into the mud and saw the object that had just hit him on the noggin.

Kagome's alarm clock.

"Leave him alone you bully!"

Inuyasha looked up like Miroku and spotted Kagome half hanging out of her bedroom window with a furious expression. Everything snapped into place at once. "You hit me!" Inuyasha yelled up to her and pointed at the alarm clock.

"Sorry – I was aiming for Miroku!" She yelled back, smiling weakly in apology. Behind her Hojo was looking on in mild confusion.

"Miroku?" Inuyasha echoed and switched a glare to the other Wishbringer. Miroku turned his gaze blandly back to Inuyasha and they both watched each other for a moment before Inuyasha's fragile tether on his patience snapped. "YOU BASTARD!"

With a feral sound in the back of his throat he lunged forward and toppled both himself and Miroku back into the mud. Inuyasha straddled him at once and grabbed fistfuls of his clothes to slam him repeatedly back onto the wet ground. "How – dare – you!" Inuyasha yelled, punctuating each word with a slam on the ground. "You – know – Kagome – how – the – hell – do-"

Miroku flipped their positions and resumed banging Inuyasha's already sore head against the edge of a concrete slab that was part of the platform for the oil tank. "How – dare you – break – so many – _rules_!" Miroku began striking him around the head. "We have them *_smack_* for a reason!"

"Rules were made to be broken!" Inuyasha snapped back as he jammed two fingers into Miroku's eyes.

"Ah! That hurt!" Miroku poked a finger against the wound on Inuyasha's chest.

"Ow-hahaow!" Inuyasha planted his feet on Miroku's chest and kicked him away quickly. He clutched his own sore chest, mumbling various explicit insults under his breath as she tried to catch his breath.

Miroku was in a similar state, his chest heaving in an effort to drag in more air, as he pushed a few stray locks of black hair out of his eyes. He didn't look so immaculately dry now. And they were a little too out of breath to resume any deadly conversations of scuffles.

It wasn't long before Kagome came running around the corner of the building, her coat pulled up over her head to protect her hair from the rain. When she arrived beside the oil tank before them, she gave them both a stern glare. "This is neither the time nor place for petty squabbles!"

Inuyasha struggled to stand. "This isn't petty!"

"This is a matter of duty and responsibility." Miroku said calmly as he stood again. "Now if you'll excuse me, Miss Kagome, but I have a job to do." He started to move towards where Inuyasha half crouched on his knees in the mud. He had barely gotten two steps closer when Kagome stepped right into his path and blocked him with a hard glare.

"You're not hurting Inuyasha." She said grimly.

"That's not for you to decide." He told her politely and attempted to move around her, Kagome stepped sideways to block him again, preventing him from getting to her Wishbringer. Inuyasha watched in amazement. Miroku was getting slightly pensive. "Please move aside."

"If you have to kill Inuyasha, you'll have to kill me first." Kagome said in a steady voice, proud that she could hold a glare without trembling even slightly.

"I can't kill you, that would be against the rules." Miroku scowled at her.

"Exactly. I won't let you kill Inuyasha just so you can sleep better at night without the First guy after you." She told him fiercely. "You have to go through me first."

Miroku blinked at her in surprise while Inuyasha turned his gaze downward. She really was quite amazing…

Suddenly Kagome found her hands snatched up by the young man standing before her, causing her coat to fall backwards behind her, flopping over Inuyasha's head. The rain hailed down on top of her unprotected hair, but she barely noticed as she stared at her and Miroku's clasped hands. "What the…?"

"Miss Kagome, your loyalty and bravery is impressive and endearing. Your heart must be as kind and warm as the vibrant aura which surrounds you." Miroku told her gently. "And I would be honoured if your would bare my chi-"

He didn't get a chance to finish that sentence as Kagome was suddenly shoved to one side and found himself staring into the eyes of a particularly angry Hanyou… one who looked like he was a breath away from tearing out his tonsils. "I wasn't talking to you." Miroku told him coolly.

"You've got some nerve, asshole." Inuyasha snarled. "Some nerve and no tact – you can't just barge in here threatening to kill me and then ask to have sex with Kagome-"

"I have my priorities in life and you have yours. Mine are to stay alive and whenever possible, ensure that I have a couple of heirs to carry on the family line seeing as how… I'm not entirely the human I used to be."

"That makes no sense!" Inuyasha exploded angrily. "You can't have children – you're a Wishbringer!"

"Of course I can have children. I'm still technically human, and so are you." Miroku seemed surprised for a moment, before sighing in a knowing way. "Ah… I see… five hundred years and you still haven't figured out the basic mechanics have you?"

Inuyasha pushed his sleeves up as he stepped closer with a menacing growl. He probably would have slogged the twit if Kagome hadn't stepped in between them and braced a hand against each chest to keep them apart. "Do we have to do this in the rain?" she called up to them both, shaking her head to try and flip the wet curling tendrils of her own hair out of her face. "If we stay out here any longer I'm going to catch a cold-"

"He's not going into the house!" Inuyasha jabbed a finger at Miroku.

"But I've been inside once already. Last night in fact. In Miss Kagome's room actually." Miroku nodded at the stiffening girl between them.

Inuyasha stared at Miroku before snapping a glare at Kagome. "What?!" he barked. "Is that true?!"

"Perhaps." Kagome said elusively before feeling the tension rise in Inuyasha again through the hand on his chest. "Ok – whoa, whoa, whoa – we really need to take this inside before one of us gets hypothermia-"

"Screw that – he's dead!" Inuyasha pushed Kagome out of the way as he went for Miroku's neck.

Kagome lost her temper. "Stop that! Get down!"

Somewhere between pushing Kagome and reaching out to grab Miroku's collar, Inuyasha's foot slipped in the mud and he plummeted to the ground. He was too shocked to get up.

After a moment or two of listening to the steady pitter-patter of the rain, Kagome drew in a shaky breath to cool her temper once more. She was a lot better at the control thing than Inuyasha, but still glared down at his back down near the ground. "I think…" she stared slowly and strictly. "We should take this inside. And no killing anyone until we talk this through." She shot both him and Miroku a pointed look before turning heal and stomping away around the corner of the house, wringing out her sopping wet hair with a very fowl look on her face.

Inuyasha finally managed to string a few slightly shocked words together. "She subdued me…"

"Clever thing isn't she?" Miroku sighed dully as he slowly traipsed after Kagome.

Inuyasha shot his retreating back a dirty look as he levered himself out of the mud and scowled as he looked down at himself. And Mrs Higurashi had only just washed this shirt…

^_^

"God knows what Hojo thinks of me now…" Kagome sighed and she rubbed a towel through her hair. She'd had to send her old friend back home again thanks to these unexpected turn of events… but he'd be back tomorrow… hopefully. "And my clothes are soaking now…"

"Maybe you should take them off?" Miroku helpfully suggested from the dusty armchair in the corner of her room.

"NO!" Both Inuyasha and Kagome chorused the response together, despite Inuyasha being across the hall in the bathroom, washing his clothes again.

Kagome lowered the towel around her shoulders and looked across at Miroku, trying to be diplomatic about the whole ordeal. "Ok… I think there have been a few misunderstandings that we need to clear up."

"And just what has been misunderstood?" Miroku asked.

"Like… I think you misunderstood that the bad guy here is not Inuyasha – it's Naraku. If you have to kill anyone – kill that guy!" Kagome shrugged.

"I can't kill Naraku. But I can kill Inuyasha." Miroku shrugged casually. "And if that will save my life then I am willing to do that."

"But that seems unfair. What did Inuyasha ever do to you?" Kagome scowled.

"Nothing. But he will get me killed, and that I don't appreciate too much."

"But Inuyasha isn't the bad guy here."

"You honestly think that?" Miroku gave her a quietly amused look. "You think after all the lives he's taken and ruined, he is still in heaven's favour?"

Kagome fumbled for something new to say… she was almost certain that Inuyasha had heard that last comment. And it was always a touchy subject for the Hanyou…

"That was never his fault." Kagome responded quietly.

"I never said it was." Miroku told her placidly. "But that still doesn't mean he shouldn't be afraid of what awaits him in the afterlife."

"That's harsh…" Kagome trailed off and looked up as she heard Inuyasha enter the room again. She blinked at the deep scowl on his face… but was distracted by the fact that he was wearing one of her own, blue flowery dressing gowns with his clothes slung over one arm.

Miroku opened his mouth to say something about his change in style when Inuyasha's slid down between the Miroku's back and the back of the chair itself. Kagome watched in surprise as Miroku stiffened as though in pain before Inuyasha pulled his hand away and stomped off to Kagome's side of the room to finish towelling his hair as well.

"What did you do to him?" Kagome gaped as Miroku trembled in either pain or sheer intensity to move… he looked very stiff all of a sudden.

"Something Naraku showed me a few days ago in the mountains." Inuyasha replied grumpily. "Pressure point for the Wishbringer."

"You have your own pressure points?" Kagome looked between them.

"We have to have some kind of weakness I suppose." Inuyasha shot Miroku another nasty glare. "He never told me about them though. _I _had to learn the hard way."

"There was a reason why I never taught you…" Miroku said in a strained voice. "I knew you would use them on me if you learnt them…"

"Well it nearly cost me my life you toe-ragged, slimy, butt-munching, creepy, ass-"

"Inuyasha – maybe you should take that thing off him." Kagome broke into his rant. "That looks painful."

"Good." Inuyasha folded his arms with a snort, but he looked uncomfortable.

"Inuyasha…?" Kagome turned pleading eyes on him. "Please? For me?"

Inuyasha scowled at her a moment before muttering something under his breath and stomping back over to Miroku to relieve the pressure point. Miroku smirked as the pain dispersed. "She really has you buttered up, hasn't she?" he muttered loud enough for only Inuyasha to hear. Inuyasha gave him a hard slap over the head before marching back to Kagome and sitting behind her on the bed as if she was some kind of shield.

Kagome took Inuyasha's wet clothes and went over to hang them on the radiator as she spoke. "I really think we don't need to kill each other for this. We all have a common enemy, so why can't we just work together to stop Naraku?"

"Because he will kill me the moment your back is turned!" Inuyasha snapped.

"Because _he _will break more rules and endanger our lives." Miroku said coolly.

Kagome finished hanging the clothes and turned back to the two boys with a frown. "What if Inuyasha doesn't break any more rules? And what if Miroku promises not to kill you?" Kagome asked them both. "_Then _can we work together against Naraku?"

Inuyasha made a disbelieving sound as Miroku sighed. "I'm not usually one to turn down a beautiful lady's request… but this time will have to be an exception." Miroku shook his head. "I don't normally involve myself with more than one person at a time."

"Only for a threesome." Inuyasha said dryly.

"True." Miroku nodded.

"But that's ok then – we're a threesome!" Kagome said happily. "There's three of us isn't there?"

"Uh… Kagome…" Inuyasha stared at her. Was she really that naïve?

"I don't do threesomes with other men." Miroku told her seriously.

"Oh…" Kagome was sincerely sad to hear that. Inuyasha was still staring at her in disbelief. 

"Well." Miroku stood up suddenly and folded his arms. "Seeing as how the First isn't out to get us all just yet… I suppose I can let you off this time, Inuyasha. But any funny business in the future will get you executed. And I mean that." He glanced over at the sulking Hanyou. "I really do mean that."

"Don't start acting like you care." Inuyasha snapped at him.

"I don't care about _you_." Miroku shot back. "But think how distraught she will be." Miroku glanced at Kagome who averted her gaze from either of them in favour of watching Inuyasha's clothes dry…

"Nothing would come to bear with us working with each other." Miroku continued, regardless. "I can't help you and you can't help me. Although… maybe I can help you concerning your conflict with Naraku."

"Bull." Inuyasha said shortly.

"Do you know something we don't?" Kagome asked, ignoring Inuyasha's attitude.

"Naraku has been, until recently, trying to kill something inside of him." Miroku told them. "I don't know for certain… and not a lot of people know for sure either, but I have a feeling he may be trying to purge the humanity out of his blood."

"What?" Kagome blinked in surprise.

"You mean… he's trying to… separate himself from Onigumo?" Inuyasha seemed just as surprised. "But, that's ridiculous – why doesn't he just wish for me to do it?"

"Because he probably knows you'll make a mess of it for him." Miroku replied.

"But why would he want to do that?" Kagome asked. "I thought he _was _Onigumo."

Inuyasha glanced at her. "Not really. Naraku is a collective consciousness of a thousand demons into one… Onigumo is like the frame that holds it together. It's like the demons are the flesh… Onigumo is the skeleton. Onigumo isn't really a conscious part of Naraku, but he's the only thing holding Naraku together."

"So…?" that still didn't answer her question. "Why does he want Onigumo out?"

"Probably because he doesn't like having a human inside him." Miroku shrugged.

"That's not it." Inuyasha said quickly. "He doesn't want Onigumo because he's driven by what Onigumo wants. Naraku is forced to submit to those desires… I guess he doesn't want to want the things he wants."

"Want what?" Kagome frowned, it was all getting a little confusing. These Wishbringers were very complicated…

"As it stands Naraku wants you, he wants me dead and he wants Kikyo too… if Naraku gets rid of Onigumo then he won't want these things any more."

"So then he won't try to kill us?" That didn't sound so bad in Kagome's opinion.

"Oh, he will." Inuyasha told her. "And he won't have petty human feelings to interfere. I did get confused as to why he tried to kill you in that car crash when he only wanted to kill you _after _he'd… um… done things to you."

Kagome grimaced. "You think-"

"Naraku must have been trying to override Onigumo's desires for you by killing you." Inuyasha scowled. "We can't let him separate himself from Onigumo otherwise he'd kill us all in a heartbeat, no messing around."

"Ouch…" Kagome prayed that wasn't what Naraku was up to at that very moment.

"Well, you seem to have figured things out for yourselves well enough." Miroku said with the tone of someone about to leave. "Hopefully this will be the last time we ever cross paths… but if you, Inuyasha, break any more rules, I will be forced to bring it down on your head, no matter how much Miss Kagome tries to defend you."

"Hey, wait a minute-!" Kagome started to call him back, but Miroku had already dissipated a wisp of faint blue.

After a moment or two of silence Inuyasha turned a disgruntled look on Kagome. "And you stopped me from beating him up… why?"

Kagome gave a faint sigh of annoyance. "Well. He didn't strike me as a bad guy. And the last thing we need to do is make a new enemy, and you have to admit that it saved your life this time." She suddenly gained a smile. "_I _saved your life this time, didn't I?"

"Yeah, whatever." Inuyasha scowled even deeper. "But remember I've saved your life three times so far, so it's three to one in my favour."

"And…" Kagome carried on ignoring him. "He did tell us something useful about Naraku… about what he wants to do about Onigumo."

"And that reminds me – you haven't _once _thanked me for all those times I saved your life."

"I wonder how Naraku plans to separate himself of Onigumo if he won't make you do it with a wish."

"And as soon as that Homo boy turned up you were all over him."

"It's worrying… once he gets Onigumo out of his system he'll probably come and kill us straight away."

"And then you stopped me from attacking Miroku – like you prefer him and Hobo to me! Do you know how insulting you are?"

"Are you listening to me?!" Kagome suddenly interrupted him.

"No. Should I?" He said dryly as he straightened the floral pattern on the dressing gown he was wearing.

"Yes!" Kagome ground out. "This is important – Naraku could be out there right now-"

"Relax!" Inuyasha snapped angrily. "I injured Naraku badly. He's half dead and barely hanging on at all… he hasn't got the time to separate himself from Onigumo right now, he's probably more concerned with holding all his body parts together. Trust me, I would be a heck of a lot more worried if he was a threat right now."

"You're right…" Kagome sighed slowly.

"Of course I am." He folded his arms huffily. "And you still haven't thanked me for saving your life. And you still haven't apologised for smacking me into the mud outside – and I don't know about you, but I find it rude how you've been ignoring me in favour of that pretty boy from your old school. He's only looking to get his hands up your skirt."

Kagome, who had just been on the brink of thanking and apologising for her mistakes, suddenly stiffened at the last comment out of his flapping mouth. "Hojo isn't like that!" she leapt to the poor boy's defence at once. "He's decent and nice – unlike _some people_!" she hissed and glared at him.

"Are you saying _I'm _not nice and decent?!"

"You're not decent – you're wearing my dressing gown – and you're not nice – you're shouting at me!"

"Well you're shouting at me too!"

"Because you're shouting at me!"

"I try to do something nice for you and what do I get?!" Inuyasha growled. "No gratitude. I don't know why I wanted to come back here so bad – I should have just stayed away and enjoyed a little more freedom for myself! The moment I get back here you start slapping me around and ordering me to go eat mud while you go flirt with boys!"

"You make it sound like I'm the bad guy here!" she cried.

"Well you are!" He turned his back on her in a huff.

"I wasn't flirting with Miroku and Hobo – I mean, Hojo!!" she snapped, he heard her shifting closer to yell at the back of his head. "I was being polite to them! I didn't want to lose Hojo as a friend and I didn't want Miroku to just kill you! Don't you understand that?"

He whirled back to face her. "I understand that you would-" he cut himself short as he very nearly bumped noses with Kagome. "Um…"

Kagome seemed stiff with shock, afraid to move away or do much else… and he felt very much the same way. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to remember the point he'd been trying to get across… the only thing he could really pay attention to at that moment was the fact that Kagome's face was barely an inch from his own and that her gaze was, instead of on his own, but on his lips.

"Kagome…?" he said softly, in an attempt to break her out of the trance she'd fallen into, and the trance he was falling into as well.

"Mm?" she wasn't really paying attention. Her nose gently touched against his and he knew now was probably the time to reinforce the boundaries of personal space… but he didn't really seem to care right then.

However, when he saw her start to lean forward, his sense snapped back into place. He couldn't let his curse hurt them both…

Kagome saw Inuyasha turn away suddenly and stopped dead in her tracks. Had she been about to kiss him? In sheer horrified embarrassment she pulled back quickly and struggled to find a decent apology. He looked slightly angry… "I-I'm sorry!" she found her voice at last. "I don't know what I was thinking!"

"It doesn't matter." He kept his gaze averted to the floor. She could still hear the ticked off tinge to his voice and naturally assumed it was her that he was mad at.

"Look, I'm…" She reached out to touch his should comfortingly, but he only shrugged out of her range and stood up, putting a physical distance between them of a metre. Putting an emotional distance between them of miles. Kagome felt strangely cold and alone all of a sudden.

"I think your mother has a tumble drier." He said simply as he went to retrieve his clothes and walked out. Kagome stared after him in surprise, reeling from what had just happened.

It all dawned on her with crushing force and she groaned loudly as she dropped to lie flat on the bed and pushed her face into the pillow. It helped to muffle her anguished scream somewhat, but didn't help relieve her embarrassment…

She couldn't believe she'd done that… she felt like a complete fool now. She'd made to kiss him and he'd turned away…

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, _stupid_ girl!" he ranted angrily and punctuated each word with a bang of the head against the headboard. It really didn't hurt as much as she needed it to… "How could I be so _stupid_?!"

She wilted back down to the pillow and tried hard not cry, but her eyes were beginning to sting and weren't remaining completely dry. She hated herself for her own stupidity, she'd embarrassed herself and Inuyasha in one swift move and now had made things very awkward between them. She half dreaded the next time she would have to speak to him…

Her pillow grew damp with her tears and she sniffed pathetically, but was at least grateful that she didn't bawl her eyes out and sob at the top of her lungs. Inuyasha was bound to hear her if she did, and she still had a little dignity left… perhaps.

She idly wondered what a strange thing it was to do… to cry, that is. Why was it, when people were sad, or hurt, or really happy, their faces screwed up, they're eyes watered and they sobbed? What was it supposed to accomplish?

Eyes watered when you had something in them like an eyelash. Noses sneezed when you'd sucked up too much dust. Chests coughed when some water had gone down the wrong why? But what was the point of crying? It didn't solve anything, and it didn't help the pain go away.

And yet everyone did it… well, nearly everyone. People broke down and cried all the time, and it achieved nothing other than let everyone know you were upset. When, in human evolution, had it decided that crying was useful? Because it wasn't.

Kagome sat up with the pillow pulled into her lap and dried her eyes. Perhaps… perhaps crying was the proverbial eyelash in the heart. Crying was maybe the emotional way of trying to rid yourself of the emotional pain. She had to admit she felt a little bit better now… though not by much.

She still felt like a foolish moron who wanted to crawl under a rock and hide until Inuyasha perhaps forgot her stupidity. The urge to crawl under the bed and hide was surprisingly strong. 

And why did she feel so foolish? Because at some point she realised that she'd fallen in love with Inuyasha, and what he thought of her seemed very important all of a sudden.

It was easy to try and avoid those kinds of thoughts about him when he had his shirt off or something… she would repeat the '_he's a jerk'_ mantra in her head and ignore her attraction. But when he was fully clothed and being his normal self, she'd been off guard and unknowingly building her emotions up to something that couldn't be…

She was a stupid moron. She wanted to kick herself but settled for pinching her thigh instead. "Ow!" she jumped… best not try that again. 

She flopped back down onto the bed and stared at the window beside her, listening idly to the birds twittering their songs in the trees beyond. She was remembering something her mother had told her long ago…

First love was the best and the worst. It felt wonderful and terrible at the same time… but it tended to be short lived, though never forgotten. Kagome seriously doubted that the ache inside her would go away any time soon. She loved Inuyasha… yet he felt nothing of the sort for her…

How was she supposed to handle this kind of thing?

After a few minutes of thinking she gathered her wits and came to her conclusion. There was no need for things to change. She got up and checked her appearance in the mirror to make sure she looked like she hadn't been crying, before making her way downstairs with what she hoped was an ordinary smile on her face.

Things went on as normal.

AN: No evil cliff-hanger this week? That's good, right?


	19. Sweet Surrender

****

Author's Notes: After some problems accessing the last chapter in ff.net – here's a tip to access chapters that apparently 'don't exist'. If you type _'&page=0'_ after the chapter number in the address bar then the missing chapter should come up. It always works for me.

Oh – and I've changed my divider from ^_^ to ~*~ The reason? I'm bored with the smiley faces and they sometimes seem out of place, like Shippo may have just been horribly murdered and cut into six pieces by an insane Youkai and the next thing you see below the scene is a ^_^. 

Though ~*~ reminds me of a little Sesshomaru face… much prettier.

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 19

Sweet Surrender

"Souta! Breakfast!"

Kagome listened to her brother come thundering down the stairs at their mother's call. She curled up more tightly on the sofa in the living room, pulling a cushion against her stomach and kept the remote control aimed at the television set.

"Kagome? Do you want any toast or something?" Mrs Higurashi called from the kitchen again.

"No thanks!" Kagome called back and went back to channel hopping. She hopped past adverts about dog shoes, banana splits, video rentals and loan companies. There were a few news programs on, doing grim reports on a lighthouse that had fallen off a cliff and a house that had burnt down in the city… Kagome hopped past those as well, she was already depressed enough as it was.

She eventually settled for watching a wildlife documentary about the African Sahara. she had to turn the volume up because the sound of Souta and Inuyasha squabbling in the kitchen was getting louder.

__

"And so, the lioness fixes her gaze on a potential mate… and after days of waiting, she makes her move…" Kagome watched transfixed as the narrator commented about the animals on screen. _"Only, the male blocks her interests and moves away…"_

"Don't worry, girl, you're not the only one." Kagome sighed miserably.

__

"Perhaps this is because the male is on an empty stomach, but the female does not give up her attempts…"

Maybe Inuyasha didn't want to kiss her because he was too hungry? Kagome pondered this thoughtfully. Maybe he didn't want to kiss her because she had bad breath? Anxiously Kagome raised a hand to her mouth and tested that theory… nope… everything smelled ok, but maybe that was just her opinion? What if she'd had spinach in her teeth?

As if the embarrassment wasn't enough already, she had to go wondering about ways in which to make it worse…

__

"And so, the lioness, continues to pursue her unwilling mate…"

Kagome sighed to herself as she hugged the pillow tighter. Inuyasha walked in at that precise moment and both of them froze upon seeing each other, Kagome stared at him and he stared straight back.

__

"…the male avoids eye contact with the female to avoid confrontation…"

Inuyasha dropped his gaze to the carpet at once and made a gesture behind him. "Your mom says that she needs you to go out and get more milk from the shop down the road."

The shop down the road being nearly two miles away. Kagome nodded in acknowledgement and watched him turn and walk out again, all without looking at her once. Kagome blinked and turned back to the Tv.

__

"…eventually the female's persistence pays of and a mating takes-"

Kagome turned the box off with a sharp punch of the remote. Kagome doubted it would be as simple as sheer persistence to get Inuyasha to like her… not that she would be as conceited as to try either. If he didn't want to like her, that was his choice, she wouldn't force it on him.

Well, better get going on that trip to the shop. Maybe a walk would clear her head?

She slipped on her shoes and grabbed her shoulder bag before marching out the door without so much as a glance at Inuyasha as she passed him in the hall. She was kinda disappointed that he didn't glance at her either… she'd been watching him in the corner of her eye, and maybe had the feeling he'd been doing the same.

No sooner had she closed the front door behind her than a car pulled into the driveway. Kagome recognised the person who got out at once as she was greeted with a cheerful, familiar call. "Higurashi!"

"Hojo." Kagome trotted down the steps with a wave.

The car drove off and Hojo gave her an odd look. "Were you just going out?"

"Uh…" Kagome remembered and slapped her head. "Oh – I totally forgot that you were coming over to tutor me today… I was just going to get some milk from the store."

"I can come with you if you like." Hojo offered.

"Oh…" Kagome blinked. "You don't have to do that."

"Its ok. The store can't be far if you're walking, right?" he pointed out.

"Actually… it's more like two miles away." Kagome told him.

"Oh… shouldn't you take the car then?"

"Well… it'll be an hour by foot, two hours by car." Kagome pointed to the old banger that Grandpa had gotten as a replacement for the car that had been wrecked before. It was a very old, very knackered car that didn't start up very easily. "It's ok, I don't have to get milk now, we can go inside and get started on-"

"No, I'd like to walk with you, Higurashi." He smiled. "If… that's alright with you?"

Kagome had always had a soft spot for fools. Now more so than ever. She knew that Hojo was probably itching to ask her on a date… and although she wasn't really interested in him, and would try to avoid a date with him at all costs, she knew that if he asked her on one, she would go just to keep him happy.

Perhaps now that she understood unrequited love a little better, she felt a little more sympathetic towards him.

"I'd like that." She smiled genuinely and held out her hand for him to take. "Come on, it's this way."

They set off together down the country road with no pavement.

~*~

"What's the matter with you?"

Inuyasha jumped back from the window guiltily as Souta entered. "Nothing! Nothing's the matter!" he snapped back at the boy self-consciously.

Souta bundled himself over to the living room window and peered out. "Oh. It's Hojo again." Souta didn't sound too impressed. "Wonder where he's taking Kagome…"

"The store." Inuyasha moved back to the window to peer out beside him. "And they're _holding hands…_" he noted with a hint of a growl in his voice.

Souta glanced up at him dubiously. "Maybe you should go hit him or something." He suggested. "I mean… aren't you jealous?"

Inuyasha didn't say anything.

"Show him your superstrength and make a big Hojo shaped hole in the ground with him in it, yeah!" Souta imitated a punch in thin air. "That'll teach him for messing around with your girlfriend."

"Kagome's not my girlfriend." Inuyasha told him hurriedly.

"What?!" Souta gaped at him. "You mean… then what the heck are you two doing together if you're not going out together?!"

"What?" Inuyasha managed to tear his gaze off Hojo and Kagome's joined hands as he turned back to Souta.

"If you're not snogging and making out then what is it that you do alone together all the time?" Souta scowled at him, finding it hard to believe that nothing was going on between them.

"Nothing happens." Inuyasha turned back to the window and cursed to find that Hojo and Kagome had moved out of sight behind the trees up the road. "Dammit…"

"Well…" Souta sighed and stepped back from the window. "If you don't do something soon then she's going to go with _him _instead. Hojo's cool… but he don't have dog ears like you."

"Mm." Inuyasha sagged slightly onto the window sill. Souta just left him to it.

~*~

"Higurashi, are you cold? You're shivering?" Hojo looked over at her in concern.

"Maybe I should have put a jacket on before I left the house…" Kagome said with a sigh as she glanced up at the sky. It was clear, but the wind was a little cold.

"Here, you can have mine." Hojo shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. Kagome took it gratefully, glad to be out of the chill of the breeze. "Thanks… but aren't you cold?"

He smiled. "I'll live."

They carried on walking back home, Hojo the dutiful gentleman as ever carried the shopping bag with the milk in it… and a few extra chocolate biscuits to stuff in Inuyasha's mouth to fill his stomach… it might just win him over if the documentary on the lions was anything to go by.

Another cold breeze blew past and Kagome huddled down further into Hojo's jacket. It smelled nice… of clean and fresh laundry… washing powder… but that was all. She was left a little disappointed again. Hojo's scent lacked the wild intangible hue that Inuyasha's had… that natural zest that made her want to bury her nose in his shoulder and do nothing but breath in for all eternity.

Kagome felt a faint blush spread across her cheeks like prickly heat. That must have been the love talking…

By now she noticed that Hojo was shivering from the cold rather badly now. And since now her thoughts was keeping her body temperature on its toes, she nudged him and passed the coat back. "I'm ok now, thanks." She smiled.

~*~

The day seemed to pass slowly enough. After depositing the milk in the fridge, Kagome had taken Hojo up to her room to begin her studies. Her brain was a little rusty from lack of use… but Hojo was patient and helpful enough. Though she had to admit that she kept one eye on the window in case she saw a repeat of yesterday's events with Miroku and Inuyasha mud-wrestling in the yard below.

The day passed… normally. Around lunch time Hojo stayed long enough to eat with the family. Inuyasha was oddly absent from the meal.

"Where's Inuyasha?" Kagome asked her mother as she sat down at the table and counted only five people including Hojo and herself.

Her mother shrugged as she served out some pickled radishes. "Probably went home for once. Assuming he remembers where he lives."

"He's like a cat, that boy." Grandpa commented absently and Kagome gave him a hard stare. "What?" she asked abruptly.

"Well, he comes and goes as he pleases and if one family feeds him better he makes himself at home." Grandpa explained. "He's a cat person."

"Oh definitely. Cat person." Mrs Higurashi agreed.

"Kitty cat person." Souta nodded.

Hojo went home after lunch and seeing as Inuyasha seemed to be in a mood and wasn't showing himself, Kagome went to amuse herself with Souta. He took them down to the river and set about trying to catch the biggest fish they could manage. It turned into a competition that Kagome eventually won, much to Souta's chagrin. Her largest fish came in at a whopping three and a half centimetres! 

She set the fish free before Souta added it to the growing wildlife collection in his room.

Evening rolled around, and so did supper. Kagome sat down at the kitchen table and pulled a face as she counted only four people this time. Inuyasha still wasn't among them. "Where's Inu-"

"For goodness sakes Kagome, stop pining after the boy." Her mother admonished with a smile. "You have to give him some air to breathe sometime you know."

Kagome quietened down and shrunk a little in her seat. Perhaps that was the reason why Inuyasha didn't want to kiss her back. Because she continually crowded him and pressured him. Maybe he freaked out and ran away from the girl who couldn't leave him alone for five minutes.

Kagome decided that was just another silly excuse. She didn't crowd Inuyasha… if anything _he _crowded _her_. He was the one hanging over her shoulder as she tried to study, demanding to know why an English poet called Shakespeare could become so famous even though his poems didn't rhyme. 

And every time it came time to go to bed she'd have to order him to leave the room so she could change and settle down. And if that happened he often got huffy about being told what to do.

Except that evening Inuyasha didn't hang over her shoulder while she studied and found it oddly quiet without him nearby. It reminded her starkly of only recently when he'd been gone for three days and she'd been worried sick about him…

He didn't bother her by refusing to leave her room when it came time to get changed and go to bed. He wasn't there for a start. As she settled down under the covers, a little anxious part of her heart gnawed at her sensibility. Inuyasha didn't often go missing for long periods of time… maybe she should check on him.

"Inuyasha?" She whispered into her room. Nothing happened. "Inuyasha?!" she called a little more loudly.

"What?" he popped into view beside her bed, looking faintly irritated as he swatted a hand back and forth to clear the red smoke that had accompanied him into the room.

He was, if anything, get clumsier at relocating.

Well at least he was safe and sound… though now Kagome had to think of a good excuse to have called him in the first place. "I… uh… you're not hungry or anything are you? I mean you skipped lunch and tea and-"

"I'm fine." He interrupted curtly.

Kagome bit down on her tongue and frowned slightly at him.

"Is that all?" he demanded snappishly.

"Well… yeah…"

Without as much as a farewell he dissipated into thin air again and was gone from the room once more. Kagome's frown deepened and she rolled over in bed to face the wall and the window. She pulled the covers over her head and closed her eyes tightly. "Jerk…"

~*~

Kagome overslept the next morning, mostly because she hadn't gotten to sleep very quickly last night. Her mother had to come in and shake her shoulder to rouse the girl.

"Kagome… Hojo's here. You have to get up now."

"Ok, I'm getting up Mom." Kagome replied as she woke, except it came out more as a rush of air and a, "OkehgerrupMo…"

"Ok dear." Mrs Higurashi smiled and left Kagome to it.

After a few moments Kagome nearly fell straight back to sleep before remembering why she had to get up. It would be rude to keep Hojo waiting after all…

No sooner had she come back from brushing her teeth to rummage around her drawers for some socks, there came a knock on the door. "Higurashi? May I come in yet?"

"Uh…" Kagome blinked down at herself and noted that, yes, she was completely dressed despite being half asleep. "Come in…" she mumbled, coming out as, "Coma…"

Hojo entered, smiling like the perfect gentleman he was. "Morning, Higurashi. You look pretty this morning."

Kagome caught sight of herself in the mirror and realised he was just being needlessly polite. Her hair was all over the place and she had creases down the side of her face from where she'd been lying on her rumpled pillow… it kinda looked like she'd been slashed repeatedly and now had scars.

"You two, Hojo, you two." She conceded as she pulled up a second stool to her desk for Hojo to sit on. "What are we going over today?" she asked as she sat down in her swivelling chair and he followed suite by sitting on the stool.

"Well, before half term came, we were did a little history on the slave trade. Do you remember doing that in school?" he asked, getting down to business at once.

"It's all news to me." Kagome smiled.

"Ok then, we can use my notes to work from." He dipped a hand into his satchel and pulled out a folder containing his especially neat and organised notes. "Here we go… we can start here I think."

He went over the entire long story about the slave trade, and Kagome listened attentively to what he was saying, positive that she didn't want to be left behind in her academic class. Occasionally she interrupted to ask questions and he answered helpfully. She had to admit that Hojo was a very good teacher one on one.

"Ok, so do you think you understand it all now?" he asked.

"Sure." She smiled.

"Then you can read through my notes and copy them out in your own words."

"You sound so much like a teacher, it's scary," she teased him as she pulled out her own books and began reading a few lines of his work before writing out her own version, shortening the details somewhat.

She quickly grew absorbed with her note taking and grew a little oblivious to Hojo's presence beside her. She quickly became acutely aware of him however when she felt his hand on her thigh as though grasping for leverage as he leaned across her to pick up one of her pens. She smiled politely as he took the pen and went back to making more of his own notes.

His hand didn't move from her thigh.

Kagome coughed behind her hand and discreetly moved her legs so his hand slipped off. The action seemed to startle him. "Oh – sorry – I didn't realise." He apologised quickly.

"It's alright." Was Hojo really that oblivious to girls or was he really a secret perv?

They carried on working quietly. Until…

"Higurashi, who's this Inuyasha person everyone keeps talking about?"

"Um…" Kagome's pen tip lifted off the paper she was writing on as she debating this question. "He's a friend… of the family… he comes around sometimes." More like at all times.

"Oh." Hojo carried on working, but with a faint frown. "Your brother seemed to suggest that you… well… you _liked _him."

"Souta told you about Inuyasha?" Kagome tried to dart around that accusation he'd just made.

"Do you like him?" Hojo looked up at her.

Kagome nodded slowly. "He's a friend…"

"Is he your boyfriend though?" Hojo pressed.

Kagome blinked at him a moment before sinking her gaze back to her half finished work. "No…"

"But you wish he was, don't you?" Hojo sounded a little sad.

"Possibly." Kagome tried to give him an encouraging smile. "He's a bit of a jerk though. You're much nicer than he is…"

"But you still like him better than me, don't you?" Hojo asked.

Kagome didn't like to lie, she thought it was a horrible thing to do. But sometimes a little white lie was appropriate to cheer people up… but… no… she couldn't lead him on. It was cruel. "I… I suppose I kinda crush on him… It's not serious or anything. He doesn't feel the same way back I suppose."

Hojo nodded and got back on with his work. Kagome had the feeling she'd made him suddenly very depressed. "I… uh…" she looked around, looking for a way to lighten the topic. "I'm going to get a drink. Do you want one?" Lighten the topic or just get out of that awkward situation.

"Yes, please." He smiled weakly.

Kagome got up placidly and shut the door after her on her way out, she winced once she was out of sight and turned to head down the corridor towards the stairs. But no sooner had she turned than she bumped into someone's chest, someone who winced when her cheek hit a rather recent and sensitive wound over his heart.

"Oh… Inuyasha." She stepped back a bit to look up into his face. He was glaring at her. Hard. But did he look at her any other way these days? Kagome looked between him and her bedroom door and suddenly grew suspicious. "Were you just passing by or were you listening on in me and Hojo."

He didn't answer. Instead he reached out, fisted a hand in the front of her dress and pushed her against the wall, and pinned her there with his body covering hers. The breath was knocked out of her lungs and she went limp from the shock, just enough for him to push both of her hands above her head and pin them there with one hand around her crossed wrists. He was very close… too close… even Kagome felt the need to squirm away for personal space again.

"I-Inuyasha – what are you _doing_?!" she hissed once she could drag enough air into her lungs. She could feel hot puffs of air furling against the underside of her jaw as he leaned in closer.

"I'm sorry," he told her breathlessly. "I can't help it anymore… I need you…"

"To get more aspirin for you?" she found his closeness a little intoxicating… and when he pushed his nose into the crook of her neck and inhaled deeply her eyelids fluttered and she fought the light-headedness that descended on her. "Stop it…"

He brought his head back up. "No, don't say that, you love me."

She squeezed her eyes shut and figured that maybe if she ignored him as though she was angry and turned her head away, he would leave off her…

No such luck. Presented baldly with the smooth curve of her cheek and jaw, Inuyasha seemed to take it as an invitation of some kind. She gasped as she felt his warm lips pressing and nipping gently against her jaw line. 

Now things had really gone too far. "Why are you doing this?!" she demanded, turning her head back to him in an effort to dislodge him from the sweet ministrations on her skin. "You're doing this just to upset me, aren't you?!"

"No – no, don't think that!" He whispered frantically. "I'm doing this because I love you – I tried to ignore it… but it's too strong, I can't ignore it… I can't ignore you!"

Kagome frowned, feeling a lump in her throat that seemed like the verge of tears. "Well you certainly changed your tune." She wasn't sure what to make of him now. Except she knew she felt very angry all of a sudden, mostly because she felt utterly helpless pinned against the wall like this, and angry because she was afraid Hojo would hear and come running, or one of her family would wander past.

"I love you…" he whispered, his warm breath tickled her cheek as his lips grazed the skin.

What if this was Naraku?

Kagome forced down the note of panic that surged within her. If this was Inuyasha he would back off if she told him to. Naraku would ignore her…

"Let go of me." She said in a firm voice… even though it shook slightly.

He paused and looked at her. She caught the look of scant regret and disappointment, before the hand which gripped her wrists loosened until it eventually fell back to his side. He backed off slightly, looking at the ground, at the wall, anywhere but at her. Was this really Naraku…? Inuyasha had been pretty confident that the monster was still hiding away to recover…

"What's the matter with you?" she demanded in a low hiss, sounding too much like her mother for her own good. "First you're giving me the cold shoulder and then _this_!"

"I couldn't help it!" he hissed back, still avoiding her eyes. "I didn't want to hurt us both by… but yesterday when you came back from the shop – you smelt like _him_!" Inuyasha jerked his chin towards her bedroom door. "I got so… _angry_… I don't like you being alone with him all the time!"

Kagome exhaled slowly and tried to look him in the eye, only he refused to make eye contact back… She reached out without much hesitation and gently forced his chin upwards, forcing him to look at her. But the moment his eyes met hers he stiffened and something flickered within the amber depths…

Before she had a chance to identify the look in his eyes she felt her back and head connect with the wall behind her with a loud thud that knocked her short of breath again. She opened her mouth to cry out in shock or anger, to yell at Inuyasha for pushing her like that, to drag in much needed oxygen after being winded.

Inuyasha's mouth was fastened over hers, so she didn't get a chance to do any of those things. Anger at the unfairness of it all slammed through her and she tried to bite his lip to get him to back off… he was too quick for her though, but at least it gave her a chance to shut her mouth and clamp her teeth together firmly so no wandering tongues got through.

His growl rumbled deep in the back of his throat and his hand came up to grip her chin and force her mouth to open. Kagome was _not _going to hand over her first real kiss like this… maybe before – but not like this.

She slapped him. Hard.

Inuyasha didn't even flinch. So she slapped him again on the same cheek. Maybe if she slapped him enough he'd eventually feel the sting. But as it was, he didn't seem to be aware of much, especially oblivious to her protests at being treated like this… like some kind of… girl-asking-to-be-dominated. The invasive 'kiss' he was forcing on her was alarming in itself and made her feel downright cheap.

She slapped him again, noticing that her blows were getting weaker and more hopeless. Maybe if she tried hitting him with her other hand… nope… that was too busy being trapped between their bodies… Kagome wanted to keep it there, even though it didn't act as much of a barrier between them, but it helped.

Hojo was probably going to come and see what all that banging and thumping was about in a minute… she'd die of pure embarrassment… not to mention how hurt the poor boy would probably be. Well, Inuyasha would be _very _hurt by her when he gave her room to speak.

She slapped him just once more for good measure and went slack in defeat. Inuyasha just didn't take subtle hints. Besides… her slapping him also jarred her own head. He seemed to take her slumped posture as acceptance and pulled back only long enough to flick her a gaze and whisper something she'd longed to hear for only a short while now.

"I love you."

Tears leaked out of her tightly shut eyes. Her mouth seemed to start obeying her heart instead of her brain. "I love _you_." This time when he kissed her again, she kissed back, clenching her hand in the material of the back of his shirt. Now her body seemed to obey her heart and her mind seemed separate and detached from what was going on… it seemed all so unreal. She was either daydreaming at the desk with Hojo or still asleep in bed…

Inuyasha broke off the kiss again and crushed her into an embrace, Kagome reciprocated at once, holding him as tightly as he held her. She felt so secure and safe…

"You don't know how long I've waited to hear those words…" he confided in her in something barely above a whisper.

Kagome buried her nose against his shoulder and inhaled deeply. She was addicted to his smell… the perfect blend of his naturally male smell that gave her deeper comfort than she was really ever conscious of feeling, and of a forest in the humid heat of summer…

And a tingle of poisonous nettles hidden within all those warm flowers and ferns of the forest…

Kagome's eyes snapped open and she found herself staring over Inuyasha's shoulder, his smell hadn't changed in the slightest but all of a sudden she felt like gagging from the noxious stench underlying in it. Inuyasha didn't smell of poison… but Naraku did.

She wanted to draw back and fight him with every terrified fibre of her being, she could almost feel the warm tingle of adrenaline rushing through her limbs, begging her to fight or take flight that very moment. But at the same time the fear kept her frozen. Too still…

"What's the matter?" the man she held in her stiff arms was rubbing her back gently. She'd never felt so suddenly filthy and disgusted in her entire life… her stomach lurched and nausea made her body nearly crumble in weakness.

His grip on her loosened somewhat and his head turned to look down the corridor. Kagome was acutely aware of every muscle moving in him… but too frightened to follow his gaze. "Oh…" he sounded bored. "And how long were you standing there for?"

"Hojo called. Said he was sick. Couldn't come to tutor Kagome today. He says sorry." That response was slow… cold. Icy fury flowing a strong undercurrent beneath the words. 

Kagome closed her eyes in despair. _Oh Inuyasha…_

The real Inuyasha.

__

AN: Oooohkaaaaay… Even though I'm sure a lot of people figured out what just happened, it'll all come be explained next chapter. I'm not sure how many chapters are left… but we're drawing close to the end quite soon… I think…


	20. Six Hundred feet Under

****

Author's Notes: Yep. Some people understood what happened… and some people didn't get it at all. Hopefully description skills shall be better in this chapter! And sorry about the wait but ff.net's been screwing us all over, so I think I can be excuse for being late. 

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 20

Six Hundred Feet Under…

"Well…" Naraku mirrored one of Inuyasha's most conceited smirks. "This is awkward."

No one moved.

Downstairs, Mrs Higurashi could be heard moving around the kitchen, Souta playing on the playstation and Grandpa could be heard sweeping the leaves off the porch in distant, but audible scratching sweeps.

It was Kagome who moved first. Finally, she seemed unable to take it anymore and threw herself away from Naraku so hard she crashed back against the wall and slumped to the ground, head in her hands and trembling with a mixture of shock and disgust.

Inuyasha flicked a gaze towards her.

"Don't even think about it." Naraku said easily as he folded his arms with slow care. "Don't even move for that matter… we don't want an unpleasant repeat of what happened the last time we met."

Inuyasha didn't move.

"Did he tell you what he did to me?" Naraku looked flatly down at where Kagome pressed herself against the wall. He crouched down to eye level and feigned a hurt sigh. "He ripped open my chest. He nearly killed me and stole my life. Me… his very own master. Rather impudent little slave if you ask me."

Neither Kagome nor Inuyasha responded. Naraku smiled nastily with Inuyasha's face and looked towards the Wishbringer. "She thought I was you… it was kinda touching really. You ought to be very pleased with yourself, Inuyasha. _Two _girls falling over their own feet for you…"

"Get out of here." Inuyasha said in the same tone as before. Low, but conveying more fury than anything else. "Or do you want your head ripped open this time."

"_You_ don't have the stamina to break any more rules." Naraku told him bluntly. "Nor the will now, knowing that the First will be after your hide if you cause any more trouble."

Inuyasha's fists clenched slowly. Naraku stared at him for a moment, as if debating whether or not he would break his own rules and take a step closer. Inuyasha didn't decide what he was thinking before suddenly Naraku reached down and pulled Kagome up by one arm. The jerk nearly had Kagome toppling over again, and Inuyasha took a hasty step forward.

"I said don't move." Naraku snapped and Inuyasha stumbled to a halt again.

Kagome tugged helplessly against the hands gripping her arms. "Let me go, you filthy-"

"That's not what you were saying a few moments ago." Naraku interrupted, jostling her teasingly.

"I-Inuyasha?!" She called out to him, looking around pleadingly. Why was he just standing there like that? Though he was obeying Naraku's orders… he could still obey hers too. "Inuyasha – I wish you'd-"

Naraku clapped a hand over her mouth. "Let's not do anything rash now." He tightened his arms around her, holding her close to pacify her furious struggles. He looked back at Inuyasha who looked like he was battling with himself. "I'll be taking her now-"

"Don't you-"

"Don't interrupt." Naraku cut him off. "And… don't follow us or anything. At least not for a couple of hours… that should give me enough time to have everything prepared for you."

Inuyasha clenched his hands so hard that his claws dug into his palms. "You're not taking Kagome you-" He didn't get a chance to finish his threat before Naraku disappeared into the air, along with Kagome.

As soon as they were gone Inuyasha lunged at the wall and smashed his fists against it with an enraged roar. "DAMMIT!" He kicked the wall and threw his weight against it. "Dammit!" he yelled again and thumped his head with both fists, gripping his hair tightly with his hands as though about to tear it out. He slid down the wall to the floor, half amazed that it had withstood his expression of anger. "Dammit… dammit… _dammit_!"

Banned to follow them for a couple of hours. A couple of hours in Inuyasha terminology meant two hours… two hours…

"Two hours and you're a dead man Naraku…"

~*~

Kagome had always wondered how Inuyasha had done it. She'd wondered once how it must have felt to shift between different locations in the blink of an eye. Now she knew.

It was like having your molecules being ripped apart and being scattered across the wind… her mind had gone blank the moment she'd been swept out of the corridor in the old house… and when she woke up again she felt stiff and sore…

Wherever she was, it was cold and dark… the ground was hard rock, slimy and slightly smelly… she pushed herself up a little, enough to peel her cheek off the ground and looked around for some kind of sign as to where she was. But it was pitch black and it gave nothing away.

"Urgh…" She sniffed loudly and wiped a hand across her damp cheek, feeling as though the slime which covered the rocks around her had covered her as well. How long had she been asleep?

And where was Naraku?

Kagome stiffened at the mere thought and listened intently. Her ears strained to catch the faintest sound of breathing, movement or footsteps on the ground. But she heard nothing suspicious… apart from the odd rumbling sound that seemed to echo in the distance like a far-off train… and the ominous sound of dripping water.

Kagome had seen her fair share of movies and figured, although she'd never really been in one, that she was in some sort of cave. Her hands reached out and she started feeling along the vaguely smooth ground to find something that could be a wall. She shuffled along as her hands connected with nothing but slime and rock… acutely aware of the sounds she made as her knees scraped the ground, of her breathing coming in short choppy breaths…

"Where am I?" she whispered quietly, feeling small and enclosed… as if she were crouched in a dark box, even though she could hear her voice echoing around her, hinting that wherever she was, it was fairly large.

Her hand hit something soft, cold and furry…

"Rat!" she jumped back almost a metre and cradled her tainted hand against her chest, cringing at the thought… she'd touched a _dead rat_…

"Not much food or light down here." A bodiless voice said from somewhere very nearby. "Rats are few and rare. You won't find much life in this place."

It sounded like Inuyasha… but Kagome knew better than to take that voice at face value. It was Naraku… without a doubt. Where he had come from suddenly…? Kagome had no idea.

"Where are we?" She asked in a shaken voice… well… at least she had enough courage and togetherness to speak to _him_.

"About two hundred feet down in a mountain." Was the response she got. Somewhere nearby she heard feet stepping across the moist ground. "Might explain why it's so cold down here, yes?"

Kagome swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. "Why did you bring me… to a mountain of all places."

"Well if you hadn't figured it out already," Naraku's tone was a little condescending. "Half of me is enamoured with you… a small and obsolete part of me, but enamoured nonetheless. However the much larger part of me would like to see you dead, with your guts spread out and your bones boiled down into glue."

Kagome didn't like that mental picture. She shuddered involuntarily.

"You are of no vital interest to me, you see… but at the same time you seem to be the most important… pivotal point of my life. My reason of living. But that would only be Onigumo's way of thinking. Something a plan to purge from me… soon."

"You didn't answer my question." Kagome ground out into the darkness around her, hoping she was aiming her voice at him. "Why are we here, in a mountain?"

"Because this is where I purge myself of impurities." His footsteps passed her by and she felt a cold draft in his wake. "This mountain has somewhat special spiritual powers… more of a presence really. Mount Hakurei. Heard of it?"

"No…"

"I don't expect you to have, really. This is a place of cleansing… I shall be cleansing myself here. It shouldn't be too long now…"

Inuyasha had warned her that no matter what happened… Naraku couldn't be allowed to free himself from Onigumo. If he did, they would all be in big trouble… but as it stood, Kagome couldn't really see little old her stopping someone as creepy and strong as Naraku alone… she needed Inuyasha…

She needed to think about something else. "Why did you bring _me _here?" she demanded. As far as she knew, she didn't really seem that important to have around.

Somewhere in the darkness she heard a sigh. "Somehow my conscience sleeps better with you nearby. It is easier to remove something that sleeps. But with that gone… you will be my first victim, and I will feel all the better for it."

Kagome hugged herself tightly. "Inuyasha will stop you."

"It's cute that you seem to have so much faith in him. But really… there are limitations to how much one puny Hanyou can do."

"You're a puny Hanyou." Kagome pointed out.

"True. But not for much longer."

Kagome shifted uneasily, her hand fell against a loose rock… roughly to size of a brick. It was either a rock, or a fossilised rat. She hoped it was the former. Her fingers closed around it silently as she glared intently off into the darkness… let him speak again…

"It will only tale a couple of hours… and then it will be done. In a couple of hours both you and Inuyasha will be-"

He broke off suddenly. She'd thrown the rock.

It connected with something with an audible slap. She waited with baited breath for something to happen.

There came a chuckle and the sound of someone bouncing the rock against a hand. "You really think a rock will kill me so easily? Girl, I've suffered much worse in my short life. But you like throwing rocks? Let's see how you like it!"

Kagome flinched back, throwing her arms up as she braced for the hit. In her mind's eye she could see him make the accompanying actions of the muffled sounds he made as he pulled his arm back… about to complete the throw.

But nothing came, and after a few seconds she loosened slightly and looked around hesitantly.

The rock clattered to the ground elsewhere and she heard him grunt in frustration. "Fuck… I can't do it…"

Kagome breathed a silent sigh of relief to herself. For the first time ever she thought it may have been a good thing to resemble Kikyo so strongly. As long as Naraku had Onigumo, he wouldn't be killing her so easily.

"If you think I can't kill you because I favour you – then think again!" he snapped a little angrily. "Only my human half's lingering attachment to a dead woman keeps me from striking you down now!"

"Then why did you kiss me when you had the perfect chance to kick me instead?" Kagome asked coldly.

She heard him chuckle darkly. But maybe it was too short to be a chuckle. "I admit, that may have been a little self-indulgent of me. My aim was to just steal you away and keep Inuyasha at bay for a while… but when presented with an opportunity such as that, even I can lose my head."

"You will when Inuyasha gets a hold of you."

"But I heard it from your sweet lips, Kagome." He told her in a cajoling tone. " He doesn't love you… you don't matter to him as much as… say, Kikyo did."

Kagome buried her head in her hands. "Why did you do that…? Why did you deliberately play with my feelings like that!"

"I like screwing people in the head. Didn't you realise that by now?"

Kagome remained quiet.

"I thought perhaps you preferred your old school companion at first…" Naraku went on. "You both seemed to get on well during your walk to the shops yesterday. It seemed like courtship to me. But it didn't take much to weasel out your true feelings about matters of the heart when asked directly. Seriously, you should guard your feelings more closely than that."

"Like Inuyasha?" Kagome shot back. "And keep everything bottled up inside until it rots and ruins me."

"Why not? It keeps him deliciously corrupted, doesn't it?" Naraku have another one of those dark chuckles. "So the moment you stepped out I couldn't resist… I stole his form and intercepted you in the corridor. I didn't plan to get carried away… but you came to me so willingly… You have to commend my acting skills."

"You're sick…" Kagome murmured. "Why don't you do everyone a favour and drop dead?"

"Ooh… bitter words for such a little girl." Naraku's smirk could literally be heard. "But I would hate to make it so easy for you."

Kagome pulled a face and hugged herself even tighter, rocking slightly to keep her body heat. It was so cold… when was Inuyasha going to come for her?

"Maybe I can't kill you directly right now…" he told her in a low voice that sent a shiver down her spine. "But I hear humans need air to live… so let's put you away for a little safe-keeping."

The ground seemed to drop out from beneath Kagome, and she screamed as she fell only a few feet… and hit bone-chillingly cold water. The shock of being plunged into such icy liquid practically paralysed her and it took a few seconds for her to summon the energy to kick her limbs and pushed her head towards the surface. She broke it with a loud echoing gasp… the panic easing somewhat as her feet found solid ground beneath her. The water was only hip-deep it seemed.

So she stood at once… and yelped as her head connected with a low ceiling. Lights burst in front of her eyes and she ducked back down in the water, rubbing her head carefully, wondering if she'd somehow managed to cave her skull in. A bump was forming… but nothing too serious.

After getting over her initial shock she raised her hands and pressed her hands to the low ceiling above her. She couldn't see much here either… but from what her senses told her, she was in a rather small cavern half filled with water…

For a moment she began to panic. She was trapped here… Naraku was no longer watching her… and he'd said something about needing air to breathe…

How much air was there left in this place?!

Kagome quickly told herself to calm down… if there was water in the cavern it must have come from somewhere…? There had to be a way out, a way for the air to come in.

But even though she searched for many long minutes around the small little pocket of space within the mountain, she found nothing more than rock walls. It led her to believe that the water must have drained down into this little pocket of air… and there was no way out and no way in…

"He can't just leave me here to die…" she tried to convince herself, but it somewhat failed. The thought of suffocating was terrifying… being trapped in this small space was inducing a little claustrophobia that she hadn't been aware of possessing. And was it her, or was the stale air getting a little thin?

"Inuyasha… Inuyasha please come soon…" she whispered into the cave. It didn't have enough room to echo back to her. "Please… I'm begging you…"

~*~

It was two hours of hell on earth. Inuyasha hadn't been able to keep still the entire time. He literally counted down the seconds from watching the clock in the living room. Souta had actually gotten a little worried, and complained that perhaps Inuyasha had slipped into a coma. Inuyasha didn't let anything distract him as he scrutinised the second hand of the clock face and willed it to tick just that little bit faster. His fingers rapped incessantly against the cushions of the sofa and there seemed to be a twitch going on with his right eye…

"Souta – where's your sister?" Mrs Higurashi asked as she passed by the doorway.

Souta stopped pulling faces at Inuyasha. "I think she's gone out again."

"She could at least leave a note or something…" Kagome's mother's voice grew distant the further she moved away. It wasn't long before she returned to lean in the doorway. "Oh, and could you look around Kagome's room, when Hojo was on the phone he said he couldn't find his notes, maybe he left them here-"

"Two hours! Finally!" Inuyasha exploded into a flurry of movement and both Higurashi's blinked as he ran across the room and threw himself out of the window.

Souta sighed and looked after him. "We have a door you know!"

Of course, before Inuyasha even hit the ground he dissipated into the air. He'd been counting down to this moment for two hours and by now he knew exactly where he was going to find both Naraku and Kagome. He homed straight in on Kagome… Naraku could wait…

He expected to land on solid ground at least when he solidified again, so was fairly surprised and shocked to land with a loud splash in something cold dark and stale… in his surprise he very nearly sucked in a lung-full of water. After floundering for a few seconds he found purchase on solid ground and surfaced immediately. He stood… and yelped loudly as his skull connected with a low ceiling, catching one of his ears painfully… that was bound to bruise come morning.

"Who's there?" a timid voice broke him out of his short-term daze. He knew that voice.

"Kagome?" he reached out towards the voice and his knuckles brushed gently against clothing. "Is that you?"

"Is that you?"

"Yes."

"Which one?"

"What?"

"Which one are you?" she was shying away from his touch. "Are you Inuyasha or Naraku?"

"Inuyasha." He said truthfully.

"Naraku would say that."

"I'm not Naraku-"

"How can I be sure you're not just say-"

"It's me!" he said a little more harshly than intended. "I know it's me, so that's good enough for you, right."

Perfect Inuyasha logic as usual. She was willing to believe him… for now. "Alright… but if you start coming on to me then I'll hit you."

"Deal." He shifted closer towards her, mindful of the low ceiling… he was having to move on his knees. "Are you ok? Did he hurt you or anything?"

"No… just said a bunch of evil-villain things and then put me in here." He heard her sigh miserably. She sounded stressed… a little nervous maybe.

"And where's here?" he asked, putting a hand out to press against the cold, slimy wall beside them.

"It's a pocket of air in Mount Hakurei." She said slowly, and as though she knew this very well by now. "I think the water is from the rain that's filtered down from the surface and collected in here. The air's old…"

"There should be a way out-"

"There isn't, I've checked." She interrupted bluntly.

His relief at finding her safe and somewhat sound was short-lived. He did not like being snapped at when he came to rescue the damsel in distress. "What's biting you?" he retorted sharply.

She was quiet for a long time. As his eyes began adjusting to the dark he could ever so vaguely make out her shape in the dark, not much though. The small amount of ambient light from the moss that coated the ceiling was enough light source for now…

"I kissed Naraku." The water around he rippled as she shuddered heavily. "I… _kissed_ Naraku…"

Inuyasha's claws scraped the rock wall slightly as the hand automatically tried to clench into a fist. "I noticed."

She was quiet for a few moments more until she looked at him reproachfully. "How… how much did you see?"

He'd seen a lot. He'd arrived the moment he'd heard Naraku mutter the words 'I love you' to her. He'd stood there, wondering if he was having a rather bizarre out of body experience. Though, he'd quickly realised just who was kissing Kagome right then… but when he'd heard her give her rather choked out response to his love confession, he hadn't been able to move.

He wasn't stupid or petty. He knew that Naraku was obviously leading her to believe he was Inuyasha… and Kagome had been telling _Inuyasha _that she loved him… not Naraku.

That was what she was asking as she stared balefully in his direction. She wanted to know if he'd heard her confession.

"I didn't see much," it was half truth – half lie. It was enough to get away with. "Only you two hugging and… you know… I kinda worked it out…"

"He pretended to be my mother. He woke me up. And then he pretended to be Hojo. And then he pretended to be you… and… and he attacked me." She told him hurriedly, though he had the feeling that she hadn't been entirely unwilling to be 'attacked' like that. "But it's ok now… you can wish us out of here, right?"

Inuyasha sighed slowly. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"W-what?" There was a small splash as Kagome straightened in the water. "Of course it's a good idea!"

"You only have two wishes left – if you use one now to get out of here you will only have one left to defend yourself against Naraku. That won't be enough, and once that's gone, I'll belong to Naraku completely and you'll be at my mercy, along with his."

Kagome was quiet.

"I can get out any time I want…" he told her slowly. "But you're trickier."

"Can't you do anything?" she asked in a whisper.

"Depends… one of three things could happen now. Naraku may pull you out of here himself, that'll save you from this 'trap' thing… or if there is another cavern behind one of these walls, which is likely, then I might be able to break through it with my own strength alone…"

"What's the third?"

"You could make a wish… but in the long run I really think that would do you more harm than good."

"You forgot the fourth one." Kagome's voice was a little tight. "I could suffocate and die in here before any of the other things happen."

Inuyasha sniffed the air. It was stale, old… a little thin… and it was only getting thinner. How long had she been in here by herself? No more than two hours at least… and there was at least three hours worth of air here. "You're right. The air's thin, but I can get us out of here before then."

Kagome was quiet.

"Well?"

She remained silent, and very still.

"Say something!"

"Shh!" she hissed in a low voice. "You're using up precious oxygen."

"Well I'm only using my half, ok?" he snapped back.

"We have to keep calm and still… breathing slowly, shallowly…" Yet her own breathing was becoming fast and choppy. "You have to calm down Inuyasha, panicking won't solve a thing."

"I'm not panicking." He said simply as he resumed feeling around the walls, trying to decipher which part was the thinnest. "There's definitely another cavern beside us… I can hear the echoes…"

Kagome didn't seem to be listening. "This is great… just bloody great… I've been sitting here for what seems like hours, waiting for you to come along and rescue me and when you do you say 'sorry, no wishes today, that won't do us any good'!" she feigned a dorky voice for him.

Inuyasha's brow ticked. "I do not sound like that!"

"Naraku's out there right now separating himself from Onigumo – he's probably finishing up this very moment… he'll probably come and blow us up in a few minutes… seconds… but we might suffocate before then. It's too hot in here… it's hot isn't it? It's not just me?"

"It's freezing."

"I thought so, too warm." She wiped a hand across her forehead and blew out a sigh like she was overheating. "It's getting harder to breathe!"

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is – maybe you don't feel it because you're like a vampire or something and don't need to breathe – but us mere mortals need air to survive – something I'm running short on right now!"

"Just calm down, alright?" he said evenly. He grinned internally as his hand touched upon the thinnest part in the cave wall. Bingo…!

"Calm down?!" Kagome snapped at him angrily. "I'm not the one who needs to calm down here – it's you!" she pointed at him. He turned to regard her impassively. "It's you that's freaking out – you're going to p… p-pieces-" she broke off into soft cries and slumped towards him. Inuyasha sighed and automatically drew an arm around her shoulder in comfort as she rested her head against his, wailing mutely.

"You shouldn't do that…" he muttered, feeling a little flustered suddenly. "You'll waste all the oxygen faster-"

Not what she wanted to hear, if the increasing volume of her sobs was anything to go by. He tried simultaneous patting and rubbing to get her to cheer up. "It's ok, I can get us out of here… you just have to stop crying and let me do it."

"I kissed Naraku!" she wailed.

"Back on that again…"

"I feel like my tongue should be black and withered!" She screwed her face up and buried it against his shoulder, causing most of her body to be submerged by the water. "It was horrible – but I enjoyed it while he did it until I realised who he was and then I felt like throwing up – I've never felt so disgusted by myself!"

"You enjoyed it because you thought it was me?" he said weakly, before wanting to slap himself. Kagome had stiffened and her sobbing had ceased at once.

"No…" she said slowly and deliberately as if she were racing for another excuse. "He was just… a very good kisser… that's all… I didn't like it because it was _you_ or anything…"

__

So the fact that you proclaimed your love had nothing to do with it either, he wanted to say. But like the sensible person he was… he kept his lips sealed. She drew back slowly and cleared her throat. "Sorry…" she muttered, sounded guilty and self-conscious. "I know I make you uncomfortable when I cry… sorry."

"It doesn't matter. We're getting out of here." He gently set her aside and turned to face the wall he'd targeted.

"What are you doing?" she asked quickly.

"Opening up some more options." He drew his fist back and with a grunt threw all of his strength behind its force as he smashed it against the wall. For a moment nothing happened. Until slow ripping and cracking sounds seemed to thread through the wall before him.

It crumbled with loud, echoing crashes and the water gushed out so suddenly that it nearly swept both him and Kagome off their feet. He managed to catch her in time, just as much fresher air poured in to replace the water they'd lost.

"The water!" Kagome cried in surprise. It was amazing how fast her fear evaporated as soon as the problem had been solved. "What did you do?"

"Broke through into another cave." He grinned, knowing she couldn't see a thing.

"Oh, good – that means…"

She trailed off when the smell hit them. Inuyasha heard her gag and begin to cough… while he nearly passed out as a sudden dizzy spell came over him. Quickly as possible, which turned out be slow and clumsy, he drew his sleeve up over his fist and pressed it to his nose and mouth, trying to block the smell out somewhat.

"What is that?" Kagome said in a strange tone that suggested she was holding her nose.

"Blood. Lots of it. Rotting corpses." He said shortly, fighting off the headache that came with such a strong stench.

"B-Bodies…?" Kagome stammered cautiously. The idea of dead corpses seemed more alarming to her than it was to him. "W-what are bodies doing… inside a mountain?"

"This is Naraku's doing…" he reached out with his free hand and fumbled to hers. He found it and clasped it tightly in his, noting how cold it was, how she trembled. "It's the only way forward… come on."

He started forward, but she resisted. "Isn't there another way?"

Her distress was obvious… and he didn't entirely blame her. She was only a helpless female human after all. Inuyasha backtracked a few paces to her, his grip on her cold hand moved gently up her wet arm to grasp her elbow firmly but softly. "Trust me, it's ok, I'll get you out of here."

"But…"

"Don't you trust me?"

She sagged miserably. "Of course I do, that's a stupid question."

That concession warmed his heart again… a lot of things she did and said warmed his heart. But memories of his curse always seemed to turn it cold again…

"Then trust me to get you out of here safely," when he tugged at her, she came willingly.

And together they stepped out of their small cave into the stench of death.

AN: Still a few more chapters to go ^_^


	21. The Rat Bag

****

Author's Notes: Ok, I know last chapter I kept doing the ^_^ divider thing… I've used it so long that it's reflex now and old habits die hard. But I'm _really_ trying to change it to ~*~, but I may make the odd slip. 

And this is a slightly longer chapter to make up for the slight delay updating. 

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 21

The Rat Bag

The smells only got worse the further they moved. All Kagome could really do was cling close to Inuyasha and rely on his ability to guide them through the darkness safely… without stepping on anything nasty.

"What do you see?" she whispered. She felt like she was in a library or a temple… it felt wrong to raise her voice. Not when Naraku could be around to hear them either. The quiet drip of water was the only background noise present.

"It's a network of tunnels…" Inuyasha whispered back, one arm stretched before him, one behind him. Kagome was firmly latched onto that arm and the other was employed in making sure he didn't bump into any dark shapes he didn't see. Dark shapes were either shadows or pillars of rock or stalagmites… or other things.

Kagome's foot brushed against something soft and she stumbled. Before her, Inuyasha stopped. "You ok?"

"Fine." She muttered back, really praying and hoping that this would all come to an end soon. "There's just… there's things in here with us, isn't there?"

Inuyasha started off again. "Yeah…"

"What-"

"I don't know." He replied shortly, leading her through a narrow opening into another tunnel with a fork in it. He stopped for a moment, before deciding to take the path that led upwards… chances were it would lead closer to the surface if nothing else. Kagome kept up diligently. 

"They're bodies aren't they…?" Kagome muttered. "You don't have to pretend not to know."

"They're not bodies." He told her quietly. "I thought they were… but I can see them now and… they're not bodies."

"Then what are they?" Another 'corpse' brushed against her ankles as she passed. It felt slimy.

"I told you, I don't know." He moved his arm around, forcing Kagome to move with it to avoid her bumping into a pillar. "They look like lumps of fat… some of them are moving."

"Probably cut up bodies." Kagome said grimly.

"Stop trying to scare yourself."

"I'm already scared – I don't need my help to make it any worse!" she snapped.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know!"

They continued in silence for a few minutes.

"Where do you suppose Naraku is?" Kagome said eventually, her voice lowered again.

"Somewhere else." He was close by… but Inuyasha didn't want her to go having any more panic attacks. But considering the circumstances, Kagome was handling everything pretty well. He'd known girls who had been in much less scary situations and would have been wetting themselves by now.

"He said he was using something in this mountain to separate himself from Onigumo." Kagome informed him, feeling as though it were important. Well… it was.

"Probably." he agreed. "There's something odd about this place…"

"Other than the fact that it's filled with blood and corpses?" Kagome gripped his arm a little harder. "This must have something to do with his plan to get rid of Onigumo… We have to stop him."

"Really?" Inuyasha sounded surprised. Or sarcastic. She couldn't really tell without seeing his face. "I thought you wanted to get out of here as fast as possible."

"Well… I do… _after_ we deal with that rat-faced asshole who's been screwing us over for the last few weeks of our lives." She said, a little venom touching her tone. "We have to put a stop to all this… once and for all."

"Wow…" Inuyasha sounded even more surprised. "I didn't think you had it in you."

"What? You didn't think I'd have the courage to stand up for what's right?" she raised an eyebrow at his back, even though it didn't have much affect seeing how dark it was.

"No. I didn't think you had the word 'asshole' in your vocabulary. You're a potty mouth." He chuckled quietly but stopped when she poked him in the ribs.

"This isn't the time to be making jokes. This is serious." She warned him. Perhaps she would have been in a more playful mood if she hadn't in a few life-and-death situations recently. "We have to find Naraku and teach him a lesson."

"And how, do you propose, that we teach Naraku anything?" Inuyasha replied smoothly.

"Well, we'll make a wish, won't we?" she said. "We'll tell him to drop dead."

"You can't wish harm on another master." He reminded her.

"Then… then I'll wish that he never bother us again."

"Nope. That's too unreliable. It would only be a matter of time before he found a loophole in that wish and started bothering us again."

"Then…" Kagome was running out of ideas. "Then I'll wish he walked off a cliff and broke both his legs and arms and could never move from where he fell again."

"That's still physical harm – you can't wish for that either." He shot down yet another plan.

"Alright then, you think of something then!" she huffed. "If you think you know everything."

"I do know everything." He sounded amused.

"Well then use all your cosmic knowledge, and help us out here!" she snapped.

He sighed and they stopped trudging along. "Alright then…" he tugged his arm free of her grasp (though she seemed a little reluctant to let go of him) and began fiddling. Kagome had to wonder what he was doing… she wished she could see…

"Cover your eyes." Inuyasha suddenly said.

"What?" No sooner had that word passed her lips than a large burst of light that turned everything white exploded in front of her. She yelped and clapped her hands over her strained eyes… feeling a strange déjà vu to when her mother turned the light on in the morning and her eyes hadn't gotten used to the light yet.

After a few moments of rapid blinking, she managed to get accustomed to the glare and found the will to raise her gaze from her hands to Inuyasha. The light had dimmed slightly, but it still lit up the cave as good as daylight… but looking around, Kagome could find no light source anywhere. "What did you do?"

"Bent some physic rules again." He said flatly. His gaze wasn't on her, but trained on the other side of the cavern like tunnel they were in. Kagome followed his eyes curiously… then stopped dead when she saw them. Her stomach did a hefty flip-flop that had her nauseous all over again.

Kagome reached for Inuyasha, her fingers curling in his sleeve as she stepped towards him. "What's…?"

"Onigumo." Inuyasha said quietly.

How on earth he knew this was beyond Kagome. All she knew that what she was looking at, looked like lumps of white blubber… some with eyes, some without. Some with mouths, some without. Some moving and wiggling… some were not.

And they were practically everywhere…

"I thought you said Onigumo was a man." Kagome whispered. Of course, he'd never said such a thing, but that was the natural impression she'd gotten.

"He was…" Inuyasha responded slowly. "That's him… I know it… but I don't understand how-"

"It's pretty simple actually."

Both Inuyasha and Kagome jerked around to the source of the new voice and the footsteps which accompanied them. At once Inuyasha stepped protectively in front of Kagome, almost as if to shield her from Naraku's eyes. Most probably because right then, Naraku had chosen to use Kagome's form as his advocate.

Naraku didn't fail to notice Inuyasha's movement and smirked lightly. "You're such a gentleman Inuyasha. It'll be your undoing."

"I don't think so." Inuyasha responded with narrowed eyes.

Kagome glanced past Inuyasha's shoulder and frowned at Naraku. She didn't really look like that… did she? Bags under the eyes, hair rumpled and in dire need of a good brush. Almost as if reading her thoughts, Naraku turned his gaze on her. "I assure you this is exactly how you look right now, you vain little bitch."

Kagome wasn't entirely offended by that… but Inuyasha was. She blinked in surprise as he literally bristled in front of her and a low growl rumbled deep in his throat. She thought perhaps he would try and take a bite out of Naraku the way he was squaring his shoulders… but he only reached back and grasped Kagome's elbow in his hand, keeping her behind him steadily. Kagome vaguely understood why he was being protective, but she half felt that it was uncalled for. She resisted Inuyasha's hand slightly and continued to glare at Naraku. "You don't have Onigumo inside you anymore… do you?"

"So you noticed." Naraku smirked nastily at her. "All that remains of that human filth," he waved a feminine hand behind the pair, "is what you see over there."

Kagome spared another glance at the strange globs of white fleshy things behind her… almost making herself sick again in the process. Inuyasha didn't look again.

"Why…" Kagome tore her gaze away, back to Naraku. "How can that be Onigumo?"

"Well I can't kill him, can I?" Naraku shrugged as though bored with the line of conversation. "He's immortal. And his humanity had infected a lot of myself… the only option was the weed out the contaminated parts of me, and force them out of my body. He'll lie here forever. Unable to move, unable to eat. His conscious scattered… but he will always be alive."

Even Kagome had to feel a little sorry for the man… though she knew that there weren't many more people who deserved such a life… but really, no one deserved that kind of suffering.

"So what do you plan to do now?" Inuyasha ground out slowly. "Now that you're a full demon." And a powerful one at that.

"Well I do have a few more wishes I could use up." Naraku tapped his chin before grinning. But do I really need them when I have such pure power at my own fingertips. My powers surpass even yours, little Hanyou Wishbringer. I have no limitations… I could kill you both now."

Kagome stiffened, and Inuyasha probably would have stiffened even more if he hadn't been so rigidly alert already. 

"Now… we're going to have a little fun, the three of us." Naraku glanced back at Inuyasha. "Inuyasha… I want you to disregard and ignore all of Kagome's orders from now on, understand?"

Kagome gasped, snapping her head up to see Inuyasha who looked lost all of a sudden. "No – don't listen to him!"

"Give your priority to me." Naraku went on. "You shall obey my orders. Understand?"

Kagome shook Inuyasha's shoulder as if that would somehow break a spell. "No! Say no!"

Inuyasha cast her a pained look before looking at the rocky ground of the cavern. "Yes… I understand."

"Good." Naraku seemed pleased. "Now. Turn around. Slowly."

Kagome backed away a step or two as Inuyasha turned to face her, eyes still downcast. "I-Inuyasha…"

"Now wrap your hands around her throat and squeeze." Naraku folded his arms and watched at a distance.

Kagome attempted to bolt. To run away and save herself, but Inuyasha caught her by her sleeve and pulled her back to him. "No!" she stuttered as she tried to fend off his hands, fighting him while he fought himself as well. The tussle was weak and as Kagome tried to shove his hands away from nearing her neck, she thought for a while that she might actually win the wrestling match.

Naraku sighed impatiently. "Stop fucking around and strangle her!"

Inuyasha, eyes trained on his hands rather than Kagome's face, clenched his jaw and knocked Kagome's defence aside. He securely wrapped two hands around her slim throat and squeezed. Very, very gently.

Kagome's hands locked onto his wrists, attempting to pull them away… but really there was no need. He was in no way inhibiting her breathing.

"Harder than that!" Naraku marched up to the pair until he was stood beside them. "Harder!"

Inuyasha's hands tightened fractionally. Kagome began to panic.

"Cut off her breathing – kill her!"

"Don't – Inuyasha stop!" Kagome pleaded.

"Don't stop!" Naraku snapped. "Crush her throat!"

His hands were now squeezing too hard, too painfully. Kagome's vision was blurring, but she fought back against him with fervour, desperate to break away. Her knees were beginning to fail and she began to sag. Perhaps her weight would break his grip.

She slumped towards the ground, rigidly trying to push his arms away, he only followed her down, dropping to his knees as her own feet began slipping out beneath her. A dim roaring noise entered her ears and she continued prying at Inuyasha's hands, digging her nails into his flesh to try and bring him pain… even though she knew it wouldn't do much good. One word from Naraku and Inuyasha was helpless against servitude…

But even though that far off roaring noise consumed most of her hearing, she could still faintly hear snatches of words going over her head.

"I'm sorry." Inuyasha was quiet. "I'm so sorry."

Somehow she'd ended up with her back pressed against the hard rock ground. Small chips of pebbles and rock ground into her spine as she twisted this way and that. She tried using her feet to brace against his stomach and push away, the result was only to put from strain on her neck. So Kagome tried to open her mouth to speak, to tell Inuyasha that she'd forgive him… but she'd appreciate it a lot if he'd just stop trying to kill her. But she couldn't seem to find the air to squeeze past his hands to talk.

But then suddenly his fingers loosened and although they still gripped her throat firmly, she suddenly found air rushing back into her aching lungs. It was enough to give her the strength to open her eyes and look up at Inuyasha who looked the most conflicted she'd ever seen him. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Naraku standing close by, possibly looking smug she wasn't sure, she was too busy focusing on Inuyasha's lips. Too busy trying to see what he was mouthing to her.

Wish. Make a wish.

He'd given her the air to do it.

Kagome didn't waste any time. She dragged in a lungful of air. "I wish-"

"Shut her up!"

Inuyasha's hand flew from her throat to clap over her mouth, effectively silencing the rest of her statement. It was a welcome relief to her poor sore throat.

"I can't have you messing everything up with a wish now, Kagome." Naraku leaned down, cocking his head so he made level eye-contact with her. "How does that feel? To be brought to the brink of death by the man you love. I wonder… is that how Kikyo felt? Do you remember? You are her after all."

Inuyasha snorted disparagingly. "I don't care what you say. You're just as obsessed with a dead woman as Onigumo." Kagome noted the certain degree of relief visible in his face as he looked down at her. It was enough to reassure her that Inuyasha was just as keen for her well-being as she was. And despite the fact that his hand was still clamped tightly over her mouth, she was grateful for his concern…

"I was just feeling a little nostalgic, that's all." Naraku straightened and took a few steps away from them before turning back. "Inuyasha. Go now and bring me your bottle. I'm getting tired of these games. I think we need to call it a day."

Inuyasha didn't move. His eyes locked with Kagome's and her hands instinctively tightened around his wrists.

"You heard what I said, Inuyasha." Naraku said coolly. "Bring me your bottle. Now."

Inuyasha winced down at Kagome and she watched him with wide eyes as his hands lightened against her mouth. He dissipated quietly and Kagome lay, stunned, staring at the roof of the long cavern. Her breathing was still a little ragged and choppy as she tried to get over the weirdness of Inuyasha trying to suffocate her. She almost forgot Naraku's presence behind her until he stepped into her line of sight.

"You must have, what? Two wishes left now?" Naraku raised an eyebrow. He'd lost his smug conceited smirks, and even looked slightly angry. "You knew that the time would come when you would be forced to separate. The minute you used up your tenth wish you would probably never see him again. You can't be his master twice. You'd grow up, grow old and die, and he'll still be sleeping in his container, oblivious to the world and stuck in a moment in time when you made the last wish. He'll live forever. Well… he would if he hadn't royally pissed me off. You're human. He's not. You're mortal. He's _im_mortal."

Kagome stared at him. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Why would you allow yourself to fall in love with someone you can never be with?" Naraku narrowed his eyes… narrowed Kagome's eyes. "You know that there is no way to free him from his life… so why did you let your heart run away with him."

Kagome swallowed hard, but said nothing. She owed Naraku no explanations. "It's none of your business."

"I know. I was just curious." Naraku shrugged and moved away, glancing at the wrist watch on his arm. Kagome took the opportunity to begin to sit up, rubbing her throat whilst wincing. Naraku went on. "I couldn't understand how Onigumo was willing to waste precious wishes, only to pursue a woman desired. And given half the chance you would do just the same for Inuyasha."

Was this the part where Naraku broke down crying, screaming about how he didn't understand humanity though he really wished he could? Kagome, somehow, didn't think so.

"Humans bug me." He turned back again to face Kagome with a wide smirk. Definitely the most evil smirk he'd made, Kagome decided. "So I think I'll wipe them out."

Her breath caught in her throat.

"Starting with you-"

Inuyasha suddenly appeared between them. His back blocked Kagome's view of Naraku and she trailed her eyes down to the hands clenched at his sides. The left was fisted tightly against his thigh whilst the right was clasped around the old coke bottle in a death grip.

"Ah. You took your time." Naraku folded his arms. "I thought you might have done the cowardly thing and run away to leave Kagome to me."

Wordlessly, and slightly sulkily, Inuyasha stomped forward and stuck the bottle out to Naraku. The demon regarded it through narrowed eyes. "Tell me. This _is _your bottle isn't it? No tricks now."

"No tricks. It's the bottle."

"The bottle which you currently inhabit?" Naraku pressed a little further. Obviously he wasn't putting anything past Inuyasha…

"Yes. The bottle which I currently inhabit."

"Good." Naraku smiled and unfolded one arm to reach out and take the bottle from Inuyasha's grasp.

Inuyasha glanced back towards Kagome, his expression unreadable… and it hit her that now was the perfect moment to make a wish that would end Naraku. There was nothing to stop her. "_I_…" her voice faltered… too quiet. She tried again. "I wish that Na-"

She stopped short at the sound of plastic being crushed. Her mouth remained hung open in shock as she watched Inuyasha flinch massively in pain and start tipping backwards… back onto her.

"Inuyasha!" She scrambled to catch him; and only mildly succeeded in breaking his fall with her body. His weight made her tumbled back as well, landing unceremoniously on her behind while her arms desperately clutched around his chest. With her legs trapped beneath him and his upper body braced against hers, she could barely move. "Inu…"

But he was getting lighter rather rapidly. Kagome could only watch in horror as his face contorted in agony and his shoulder began fading into nothing. "No… no!" she shot her chin up to see Naraku standing a few metres away, smiling subtly with the crushed bottle of coke in his fist. It was beyond repair… broken in several places.

"I hear that fading into nothing like this is probably the most painful way for a Wishbringer to go." Naraku said smugly. "Seems like its true."

Inuyasha was getting more insubstantial than ever. Thin wisps of scarlet most seemed to evaporate off him… taking away his body bit by bit. Kagome felt a sob well up in her chest and instantaneously tears began stinging her eyes. "Don't go… please don't leave me…"

His left hand groped for hers… curiously it was still fisted and solid despite the rest of him being nearly transparent. Kagome saw him reach for her and at once grasped his hand tightly in hers.

He deposited something into her palm.

"Don't worry." He whispered, giving a weak smile.

Kagome couldn't tear her gaze away from his to look at what he'd given her. She could see right through him to the cavern floor beneath him. "Inuyasha…"

Naraku stalked forward. "This is taking too long." With one fell kick aimed at Inuyasha, what little remained of the Hanyou's form scattered into mist and furled into the air like rising dust.

Then it disappeared.

The dull thud of her heart was all Kagome could hear. It throbbed in her ears as she stared into space. Naraku was laughing. She wished he would stop… she wished Inuyasha would come back… she wished none of this had happened… she wished she'd never met Inuyasha, then she would never have gone through all this turmoil, hope and despair.

She wished…

"That brings the grand total of Wishbringers down to twenty two…" Naraku tossed the bottle over his shoulder and dusted his hands together. "And that leaves only two tenth generations."

Kagome's over-bright eyes fell to her scratched up knees, slowly taking in a few of the bruises visible on her bare skin. Her gaze turned to her hand, and for the first time she uncurled her fist to take a look at what Inuyasha had given her.

At first she didn't understand… but then it all made perfect sense. Her heart swelled and she clasped her hands tightly to her chest as she smiled and let the tears fall in torrents down her cheeks.

"Now…" Naraku started towards Kagome, and as he moved his features slid and shifted across his face. Kagome looked up at him slowly as she watched his body lose its slight feminine shape and become bigger, bulkier… more masculine. The scraggy miniskirt and jersey that had been identical to her own melded into clothes better suited.

The transformation was so smooth, Kagome nearly wondered what had changed and how… she wondered what she was looking at. It looked like a full grown man… covered with spikes and blades that looked more dangerous than any creature on earth.

He continued to approach her and Kagome desperately scooted backwards to try and keep the distance. As he moved he raised one arm in a smooth gesture and she saw that instead of ending in a hand, the arm tapered off into a sharp sickle shaped blade with a wooden texture to it…

"Any last words…?" He smirked as he stood over her, blade arm raised and ready to slice her in two.

Kagome looked around her for help. To her left was empty cave… to her right was more empty cave with Onigumo blubber wiggling here and there. She swallowed hard and tightened her hand hard around the tiny object in her hand. She looked Naraku dead in the eye with quavering determination. "Yes."

"Then by all means…" he gave a mock bow of the head in a charade of politeness. 

Kagome closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I wish…"

She heard him snort in laughter… but he made no move to stop her. Why should he? He didn't know…

Kagome opened her eyes, filled with new contempt and fiery courage. "I wish that you found the form to suit your nature perfectly! You are a rat! You are scum! That is what you deserve to be and what you will be from now on! A dirty, flea-bitten vermin that infects others and carried disease wherever it goes! I wish you remain that way forever!"

Naraku laughed cruelly. "I must give you points for creativity. But you're a little late. Your Wishbringer is no more, and you have forfeit your last wishes."

"No she hasn't."

Naraku turned to look slowly towards the other end of the cavern. Kagome watched his face close for his reaction… he only looked mildly disappointed. "Oh… look…"

Kagome followed his gaze, her chest aching with love and pride. She doubted there had been a time when Inuyasha had looked more heroic and handsome… She smiled broadly, her tears drying quickly. "You heard me, Inuyasha." She called in a strong voice.

"As you wish!"

Naraku didn't stand a chance. He tried to defend himself, but against the full power of a Wishbringer he was pretty much powerless.

A noxious explosion of gas and thick miasma filled the cave and Kagome scrambled to her feet, covered her mouth with a hand to keep from breathing in the fumes. Naraku didn't intend to go down without a fight. She raced towards Inuyasha.

"One petty little wish won't destroy me!" Naraku yelled, tentacles that resembled living roots erupted out of his body and shot through the miasma towards Inuyasha. For a horrible moment Kagome thought Inuyasha would be struck down… but Inuyasha simply drew back one fist and punched aside each tentacle as they neared.

"This is your end Naraku!" Inuyasha darted forward, skipping over lashing tentacles and twisting to avoid well aimed blows. Kagome watched with wide eyes as he simply plunged through the miasma and used his claws to wrench his way up Naraku, whose body seemed to be growing and expanding to fill the cavern to the roof.

Inuyasha locked one arm around his neck and proceeded to hang on for dear life as her smashed a fist against Naraku's skull. "This is for Kagome! And all your perverted thoughts about her!" He struck Naraku again. "And this one's for Mrs H! For knocking her out and pretending to be her for a whole day! This is for turning me into a dog! This is for sticking a pole through my chest! This is for flinging their car off a cliff! This is for Kikyo and all the hell you put her through! _This is it!!_"

Inuyasha drew his fist back one last time and planted it all the way into Naraku's back. The poisonous miasma in Naraku's body stung and burned his arm… but he didn't pull back. Naraku thrashed and threw himself around as he tried to dislodge the Wishbringer. It didn't work. Inuyasha didn't pull back.

"It's like trying to scratch an itch on your back isn't it!" Inuyasha yelled over the din of Naraku's thrashing. "You just can't reach!"

The tentacles smashed against the caverns walls and Kagome kept as far out of the way as possible, but still little bits of rock and stalactite rained down on her from above. She hoped that all this activity didn't bring the roof down on all of them. She didn't fancy coming this far to be buried under a mountain.

But the tentacles were shrinking. Naraku was growing smaller and soon Inuyasha's feet were planted on the ground, though his fist was still embedded in Naraku's back. The demon was weakening, slumping forward onto all fours… yet he was still shrinking… and sprouting fur… a tail…

With eyes wide in amazement Kagome watched as her wish unfolded before her. In was only a matter of seconds before the transformation was complete and the cavern rumbled back into peace and quiet. 

Well it would have been quiet if not for the screeching little rat that Inuyasha had pinned to the ground.

The miasma had already dispersed and Kagome took a tentative look at the roof to double check it wasn't about to cave in, before straightening and taking a step towards Inuyasha and the rat…

"So…" Inuyasha straightened, hauling mini Naraku into the air by the tail, swinging him around in a circle rather cruelly. "Who gets to kill him first?"

Kagome blinked at the rat. "Is it… is he really stuck like that?"

Inuyasha grinned happily as he nodded, giving Naraku a little poke that had him contorting and screeching even louder than before. "He's about as harmless as he looks. The most he could do is bite you and give you rabies – ow! Little sod!"

Naraku seemed to have taken the advice and bitten Inuyasha.

Inuyasha promptly dropped the rat. But before it could skitter away, he dropped a boulder on top of it. Kagome flinched as the sickening crunch of a flattened rat echoed around the cavern. "Oh…I hate it when you do that…" she grimaced as she averted her eyes and looked everywhere except at the boulder and the… red stuff coming out from under it.

She looked at Inuyasha, however, when he began laughing. Laughing rather darkly actually. Kagome's eyes narrowed in concern. Had he really gotten rabies already? "Inuyasha?"

"Of all the wishes you could have made…" he chuckled. "You turned him into a rat. Even I wouldn't have thought of something like that."

"Well… it was the first thing that came into my head." She said quietly, but slightly defensively.

"You're a smart girl." He conceded, smiling at her. Kagome stared back at him silently for a few moments before finally running forward and throwing her arms around his middle. She held him tighter in relief when she felt his solid arms lock around her in return, holding her just as closely and protectively as she did him. She felt safe and warm… and this time it was with Inuyasha, not Naraku.

"I thought you'd died. Again." Kagome mumbled against his chest. He smelt faintly of Naraku's miasma, but she didn't care. He was alive. He was Inuyasha, and he was holding her tenderly and resting a warm against the back of her head, idly stroking her hair.

"You got the message then." His eyes were closed in content as he rested his cheek against the top of her head.

Kagome pulled back slightly as she brought up her hand and held out the object that he'd given her before. It was a tiny glass tube that had once contained a small sample of perfume. According to the lettering along the side, it had been '_Dune_' perfume. It was complete with a little stopper at the top… a small, but valid container.

"You knew he was going to break the bottle, didn't you?" she smiled up at him, her eyes getting a little damp again.

He nodded. "I brought that along as back-up."

"Clever boy!" she grinned teasingly and flicked his nose as she drew back to look behind them.

Naraku was dead… Onigumo was as good as dead. And both she and Inuyasha were still alive and well. It probably could have ended in a cleaner way… but they were still both in tact and that was all that mattered.

Though Naraku's words still rung in her head. She only had one wish left now… and then what? Would she be forced to forget about Inuyasha? She'd probably never see him again…

Her smiled faded slightly as she looked over the rubble of the cavern. The future beyond that tenth wish looked bleak.

"Come on." Inuyasha's hand closed over hers, gently tugging her after him as he started off in the direction they'd been heading in before. "The sooner we get out of here the better."

"Yes." Kagome mentally gave herself a shake and forced a smile onto her face as she trotted after him.

She should have been happy. But somehow… a life without Inuyasha seemed depressing all of a sudden.

Though who was to say that tenth wish would be any time soon? She might choose never to make that last wish! Kagome's resolve firmed slightly and her worry seeped away slightly. They were together now, with no one threatening their happiness, or their lives… that was all that mattered. Whatever else lay ahead, she didn't want to think about it.

She'd cross that bridge when she came to it.

AN: Still more chapters to come ^_^


	22. Back in the Swing of Things

****

Author's Notes: Sorry about the not updating thing, but sadly my Uncle died rather suddenly and since he's Jewish and there's this whole thing where you have to have the funeral within 24 hours of the death we all had to drop everything and leg it across the Atlantic to go attend the funeral over in Arizona. It was a horrible journey there and back, everyone's jet-lagged and tired and low on comfort and happiness. Not only that but my computer's not coping well with life either and has started crashing – strange, because I've only had it for a few months. And to put the cherry on the icing, I get my O level results in a few days which will determine whether or not I get into college. Here's hoping…

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 22

Back in the Swing of Things…

"We're nearly there…"

Kagome stirred slightly, lifting her head from Inuyasha's shoulder to peer up the path. She suddenly occurred to her that they'd, at some point, found a road and were now plodding down that instead of traipsing through the forest over the slopes. It probably explained why the journey had been somewhat smoother over that last hour or so. Kagome had been too worn out to really open her eyes and take much notice of where they were going. Inuyasha had said he would carry her back to the house… that was all her weary mind could really comprehend right then.

"Good." she mumbled as her face sunk back against his shoulder. "'Cause my feet are killing me…"

"Of course they are." She was too tired to even notice the cynical tone in his voice.

She sleepily flexed her arms around his neck and shifted closer to the warmth of his back. "You know… you're really good to carry me home like this… all the way." She closed her eyes again with a sigh. "What would I do without you?"

Inuyasha's hands shifted slightly under her knees. He didn't say anything for the rest of the journey.

~*~

"There you two are!" Mrs Higurashi stood up from the porch steps and trotted down them to greet the pair's arrival. "Where have you been all day? We were worried sick! No note, no explanation – it was like you both just vanished into thin air."

"We're ok, Mom." Kagome slid down off Inuyasha's back and went to embrace her mother tightly. Inuyasha shifted his weight slightly to the other leg and remained quiet.

"Where were you two?" Mrs Higurashi pulled back from her daughters arms and glanced between the two teenagers. "Look at you both… you're all dusty and dirty… and is that _blood_?"

"Ketchup." Kagome said quickly. Inuyasha suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. She was always such an obvious liar in reality.

"We took a walk and got lost." He said casually, giving Kagome a pointed look as if to say 'that's how it's done'. "Looks like we found our way back after a couple of detours."

"Well at least you're back in one piece. These hills and forest are dangerous you know." Mrs Higurashi took Kagome by the shoulder and ushered her inside, she beckoned for Inuyasha to follow. "Well you two better take a bath and get a change of clothes, I'll reheat your dinner for you both. No doubt you'll be hungry after all that walking."

Somehow, Inuyasha didn't really feel his appetite bothering him too much. If anything his stomach was just too uneasy and unsettled to think about holding down food. Something had been nagging at his mind all the journey back while Kagome dozed obliviously on his back. It had nagged him even more when she'd made that well-meant but unwitting comment a while ago. _What would she ever do without him?_

It made him think…

Actually, that was a valid question. What would Kagome do once he was out of the picture. With ten wishes up… where would Kagome be left standing?

And more importantly; _What would **he** do without her?_

Sleep mindlessly seemed to be the obvious answer.

He was pulled out of his reverie when Kagome spoke to him. He realised that Mrs Higurashi had drifted off to get them a change of clothes and Kagome had stopped them at the foot of the stairs. "I'll go take a shower first, and then I'll run a bath for you." She told him. Her gratefulness towards his previous actions that day was still shining in her eyes as she smiled at him. "It's the least I can do."

"You shouldn't bother thanking me…" he mumbled, looking away in case she saw how self-conscious he'd just become. But he reckoned it was pretty obvious in his body language. "It was a wish that saved us. Not me."

"Still," Kagome gave an easy shrug. "If you hadn't been there then Naraku probably would have decapitated me."

That was very true. He saw her give one last brief smile before toddling up the old staircase and disappearing down the hall on the next floor up. Inuyasha sighed and rubbed a hand over his particularly sore ear… smashing it against the roof of that cave had hurt more than he'd expected.

Well since he had nothing better to do, he'd go sit down and wait for Kagome to finish in the bathroom and run his bath. And rather than sit inside he decided to head back outside, preferably to the good old oil tank. He did most of his best thinking there… and thinking was the one thing he needed to do right then. He needed to think things through… he needed to decide what he was supposed to do now.

"Forgive me for saying so, but you look a little down."

Inuyasha stopped short halfway across the back yard and looked towards the garage. A short distance away he saw a girl, roughly Kagome's age, but probably a little older. He frowned when he didn't recognise her… her scent wasn't familiar so she probably wasn't one of his enemies. "And… you are?"

"The car mechanic." She gestured to herself. Actually… now that he looked at her, it was kind of obvious. The fact that she was wearing a one piece, navy blue jump suit covered in dark oil stains was a bit of a give-away. That and the fact she was carrying a spark plug in one hand and a large spanner in the other. Yep. She was the car mechanic. But Inuyasha still had his doubts.

"Aren't you a little bit too-"

"What, young?" she fixed him with a challenging look.

"I was going to say female, but yeah, that too." He folded his arms, meeting her challenging stare with his own. "And what is a car mechanic doing here anyway?"

"Um… fixing the car?" she gestured towards the garage.

Oops. That had been a pretty obvious mistake on his part. He kept his expression neutral. "Yeah, whatever. Good luck fixing that crap trap."

"Thanks, but for the amount of work I'm going to have to do on this thing, you'd better tell Mr Higurashi that Sango wants paying double."

"And does Sango always talk in third person?"

"Only when Sango thinks she's talking to slightly duller than average people." She smiled blandly and headed back towards the garage, taking a cloth rag from her pocket and dabbing out the oil blotches covering her hands and face.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes as he watched her until she was gone from sight. She probably wasn't a suspicious person… but he was going to keep his eye on that one. He could usually only handle one smart-mouthed girl at a time.

With his thoughts leading him back in the direction of Kagome and his feet leading him in the direction of the river… he wasn't particularly conscious of where he was going or what he was going to do when he got there.

His expression must have been pretty strange seeing as how Souta, who'd been paddling around the river with his net looking for fish and frogs piped up as Inuyasha crossed the bridge. "What's the matter with your face?" 

"Nothing." Inuyasha said snippily stopping in the middle of the bridge, keeping his eyes firmly fixed on anything that moved beneath the surface of the water.

Souta watched him curiously before switching his gaze to the house where he'd heard his mother greeting Kagome and Inuyasha only a few moments ago. He looked back at Inuyasha, taking in the stiff slant of his shoulders and the tightening curl of his fists at his sides before looking back at the house, the water was rushing down the drains at the side of the building… an indication someone was in the shower. Souta took another look at Inuyasha who was practically pouting as he crouched to pick up a circular stone from the river bed and positioned himself, ready to skip it across the water.

"You've got it bad, ain't ya?"

Inuyasha's entire body flinched as he made the throw. The stone sunk on the first skip. With a huff he turned back to the small boy. "I ain't got anything bad!"

"Then why are you getting all sulky and moody?" Souta pointed out. "You go like this every time something bad happens between you and Kagome… or when Hojo turns up."

"Yeah, well…" Inuyasha didn't elaborate any further than that as he determinedly tried to focus his attention on whatever it was he was supposed to be doing. What was he supposed to be doing? He had no idea…

"Wouldn't be… _puppy_ love would it?" Souta snickered and waddled off through the water before Inuyasha's splash kick could hit him.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Inuyasha balled his fists and flopped down on the edge of the wooden bridge, under the rail with his legs dangling over the edge. It was all a lie of course. He probably did have it bad. And it was… uncomfortable, or so to speak. 

Inuyasha glanced towards the house and, if he strained, he could pick up a few little melodious notes coming from the bathroom. Kagome was undoubtedly singing again, despite her rough ordeal.

With a deep sigh he reclined back on his palms and gazed absently up at the sky while he swung his legs, skimming his feet and ankles in the river and disturbing the water's surface with ripples.

It reoccurred to Inuyasha… like it did at times like this, that he wasn't like Kagome. He wasn't like one of her friends… he wouldn't live on this earth for sixty or seventy years… or however long it was that mortal humans lived. He would live forever, and be asleep for more than half that time. 

Of course, he'd never been like _them_. Like humans. And it hadn't actually been that great a loss to his social life when he'd turned Wishbringer. He'd had no social life to begin with. But there had been a time when he'd been free to do as he wished… no… to do as he wanted. He never bowed down to anybody and his most pressing concerns had been when or if a larger, stronger demon might cross paths with him and end his fairly pointless, small life. Back then he'd never stayed in one place long enough to find a home. Home had been wherever he happened to be at any one time.

He'd hated that life. He'd probably woken up every morning (or whatever time he woke up, he'd never bothered to keep a regular life style) and cursed all the deities that had had a hand in his creation. Why couldn't he have been born a true demon? Why couldn't he have had some aim in life other than just keep moving to avoid being picked off?

Five hundred years had passed since that life had ended… but to Inuyasha… he almost felt as though he could reach out and touch it. Five hundred years had passed by in a flicker while he slept, only awakening occasionally from the slumber to slave away for some new arrogant master who reckoned they had the world at their fingertips now that they had a tenth generation Wishbringer. The ordinary Hanyou he'd once been seemed a tangible life that still hadn't faded from the memory… in a way he was still getting used to being the way he was now.

It was a cold hard fact that he had, in a way, died that day when he'd found Miroku. He'd left his life behind and finally found a purpose to exist on a higher level. To destroy master after master with their wishes the same way he destroyed himself.

Yet time with a master like Kagome was almost enough to make him forget. When he was beside her he wasn't her underling… wasn't just some toy that granted her ten little pleasures. Beside her he felt like… like a boy. Not a Hanyou, not a Wishbringer… but someone like her. Someone real…

But it was all a little delusional. Another hard fact was that he was still a Wishbringer now. He would always be the way he was now… there was no way to undo what he'd inflicted upon himself all those years ago. He couldn't be Kagome's friend because it just wasn't physically possible…

Inuyasha's legs stopped swinging in the water and he ran two hands from the top of his head, over his ears and brought them to a rest, covering his face. He leant forward, propping his elbows on his knees as he stared through the gaps in his fingers at his reflection in the water below him.

He'd been forgetting… it was simply too easy to forget that he was different when he was around Kagome. She made him feel like he belonged. Defences he'd thought were strong and unbreakable had been slowly dissolving right under his nose and he'd never noticed. After all… what harm was a kind smile and a nonchalant touch now and then? Except, kind smiles were all too frequent and those nonchalant touches were not so nonchalant anymore. But friendly words and kind eyes were just as deadly.

Inuyasha suddenly felt angry at himself. He could feel the heat of his anger warm his face through his palms and scowled at his reflection now, drawing his hands down slowly to fist under his chin as he all out glared at himself. He'd warned himself consciously not to get attached and still he got that warm, pleasant feeling when he thought of Kagome, and got that uncomfortable icy feeling around his heart when he thought about what would happen after the tenth wish.

He wondered… what would she spend her last wish on? When would she use it? If Inuyasha had his way he would tape her mouth shut for the rest of her natural life so the words 'I wish' never passed those lips. 

But that was not a good way to think…

He didn't know what to think anymore.

~*~

Kagome groped for the towel as she stepped out of the shower onto the linoleum floor of the bathroom. She growled slightly under her breath as her hand only grasped thin air… she was sure she'd hung the towel around here somewhere. But with all the water and soap in her eyes she didn't want to risk opening them to see for herself.

"Where is it…?" she muttered, gripped the shower curtain with one hand to avoid slipping.

Suddenly the towel was pushed into her hands milliseconds before it was accompanied by a male voice. "Here you go."

Kagome's reaction was instantaneous. With a startled cry she spun away from the voice blindly. But in the process she forgot to let go of the shower curtain, ripping its rings from the pole above her with a series of sharp pops. Her foot slipped on the wet ceramic floor of the bath and her knees buckled, making her entire body collapse in a maelstrom of shower curtain and plastic rings.

Almost as an afterthought, the pole that held up the curtain dropped down from the ceiling and landing with a clap on the floor.

It was a moment before Kagome's fingers loosened their claw-like grip on the towel still clenched in her fist and she drew back the shower curtain away from her face to peep up at her intruder. Thankfully she wasn't particularly exposed at that moment, thanks to her 'quick thinking' with the curtain. But still her cheeks darkened with a hot blush as her stare landed on the last person she'd expected to see. Inuyasha, maybe. Hojo, possibly.

But not Miroku.

"My god, you really are a pervert." She whispered. "I thought Inuyasha only said that out of spite!"

Miroku looked offended, but she knew it was contrived. "You needn't worry, I didn't peek." Then something strange happened.

He slapped himself.

Kagome stared at him long and hard, slowly her embarrassment at being caught in the buff was sinking into anger… and total confusion as to why Miroku would willingly slap himself. She shook her head, as if trying to shake off her strange thoughts. "Turn around."

"As you wish." He responded in an airily tone and turned his back on her. "I can hand you your clothes if you-"

"Don't touch my clothes!" her underwear was hidden in that pile, she didn't need him fiddling around with them. God… Inuyasha would have a mental breakdown if he found out about this. But first she needed to know why Miroku was here. He could be out to get Inuyasha again.

And before all that she needed to get dressed.

Carefully, she manoeuvred herself out of the bath tub, her arms clamped down on the opaque blue shower curtain that was currently wrapped around her body. Now if she could just get her clothes on and get both her and Miroku out of the bathroom without Inuyasha ever knowing, perhaps this could all be sorted out without the need to resort to violence. 

Someone with a strong fist banged on the door. "What's going on in there?!" It was Inuyasha. "I heard you scream!"

"I'm ok! I only slipped!" she called back with a grimace as she scrambled into her underwear, eyes on Miroku in case he decided to turn around. Fortunately he was respecting her privacy for now… but even from behind she could tell he looked amused.

"Are you ok?" Inuyasha called again through the door.

"She's fine." Miroku called back. And only then did Kagome realise that he was standing in front of the mirror… and seeing everything that was going on behind him. "_Real _fine."

Kagome snatched the towel up to her body again, even though she was already half dressed and fairly decent. "You _pervert_!" she screamed, just as a blur of red and white darted through the closed door, literally, and caught Miroku in a hard tackle to the ground. For a moment it confused Kagome… how the hell had Inuyasha managed to get through a closed door?

"You bastard!" Inuyasha grunted as he planted a fist hard in Miroku's stomach.

The other Wishbringer wheezed slightly. "Why is it-" he broke off momentarily to push Inuyasha's hand away that had been getting dangerously close to his throat. "Why is it every time I come here with good intentions I end up on the floor with you on top of me?"

"Good intentions? You're here to kill me!" Inuyasha spat. Kagome inched her way towards the door, intending to slip out and wiggle into her jumper before either boy really took the time to notice her.

"This is childish." Miroku suddenly admonished and gave Inuyasha a short but firm shove in the chest that sent the younger Wishbringer sprawling backwards at Kagome's feet. "And I'm not here to kill you." Miroku stood, dusting himself off with an air of dignity. "I would, but I'm a little too late for that now."

"Meaning?" Inuyasha snapped, his gaze still lingering furiously on Miroku even as he stood up slowly and stretched out an arm to Kagome, half pulling her behind him. "You ok?" he muttered.

"I'm fine. He just surprised me." She said honestly, but in truth her nerves and sense of decency were still rattling. Of course she didn't need to tell Inuyasha for him to sense that. He snapped one decisive glance at her before pushing up his sleeves and taking a warning step towards Miroku. Kagome quickly grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "I think we should just sit down like three civilised people and talk this through."

"Kill now. Questions later." Inuyasha said primitively.

"On the contrary, what I have to say to both of you is fairly important." Miroku had gone back to folding his arms casual, a slightly more serious edge to his expression and tone now. "It isn't the kind of thing you'd wish to hear whilst standing in a steamy bathroom."

"On the contrary," Inuyasha responded, feigning Miroku's tone insultingly. "How about you tell us right now so you can leave that much faster?"

"Well that's just rude." Miroku scolded him with a light scowl.

"I…" Kagome eased Inuyasha back towards her gently with her grip on his arm. "I think we should be taking this into the bedroom. We won't get any interruptions there." She offered. She knew that it would only be a matter of time before someone else in the family came up to use the bathroom and then someone might stumble upon Miroku and then Kagome would be hard-pressed for explanations she wasn't very good at any way. 

Inuyasha seemed disinclined to move.

"Inuyasha." She leaned up on tiptoes so she could hiss his name closer to his ear. "Inuyasha, let's go into the bedroom." The warning in her voice was clear. His ear twitched slightly as he caught it.

"Whatever." He muttered and shrugged her hand off his shoulder to walk out of the bathroom, dragging her with him by the wrist. Kagome rolled her eyes as she staggered after his brusque pace. He was too damn protective… but it was kinda nice.

Mental slap for Kagome.

It wasn't good to harbour those kinds of thoughts…

Miroku shut the door after him as he arrived in the small bedroom after the pair. Inuyasha turned on him with a huff and a big show of folding his arms. The two boys started a small glaring match. From where Kagome sat on the edge of her bed she glanced between them and inwardly sighed. She turned to Miroku. "That thing you came to talk to us about…?"

"Oh yes." Miroku broke eye contact with Inuyasha long enough to grace her with a look. "Would you mind stepping out for a moment, Miss Kagome? Only I'd like to speak to Inuyasha privately for a moment."

Kagome sat up a bit straighter and glanced between them again. She wasn't sure she could trust them to be alone together for more than five minutes without coming back to find them trying to tear each other's spine out. "Um… ok." she gave Miroku a serious look. "If you try killing him while I'm gone then I'll never forgive you."

With that she stood and marched to the door. "I'll go get us some tea and biscuits then, shall I?"

Inuyasha watched her leave, unsure whether or not she was being sarcastic and miffed that she'd been sent out or serious and polite. He glanced back at Miroku and at once his hackles rose when he noticed that Miroku had been watching Kagome leave as well. Or more specifically; watching her behind leave.

"Hey!" he barked.

"Sorry." Miroku said half-heartedly… and lightly slapped himself.

Inuyasha just stared in dumb shock for a moment. "Oh my god. I think you've finally lost it."

"What – oh you mean the slapping thing?" Miroku glanced down at his hands briefly and seemed to regard them like two dangerous animals. "Well that was the effect of one of my master's wishes gone wrong."

"Oh really?" Inuyasha smirked slightly.

"Yes. Her hands were getting sore from all the physical abuse she likes putting me through so she basically told me that every time I have a dirty thought, I have to slap myself." He flexed his fingers and sighed deeply as though trying to cleanse his thoughts. "And she won't remove the wish. She thinks it'll be as good as shock therapy."

"She's probably on the right track." Inuyasha rolled his eyes and began pacing the length of the bed before Miroku. "And as much as I love talking about domestic abuse where you're the victim, didn't you have something to come to talk to me about?"

"Yes." Miroku turned his attention to his sleeve and pretended to flick a piece of lint off. "The First is coming."

Inuyasha stopped pacing.

"It's coming for you." Miroku finished flatly. He looked up carefully, trying to gauge Inuyasha's reaction. To his surprise, the Hanyou didn't seem to be having much of any kind of reaction. "Well?"

Inuyasha sighed and slumped down onto the edge of the bed where Kagome had sat not too long ago. "I knew it…"

~*~

"Tell me to walk out like that will they?" Kagome grumbled as she padded up the stairs again with three drinks in hand and a packet of biscuits between her teeth. "Like it's some kind of top secret Wishbringer meeting…"

She slowed slightly.

Top secret?

Kagome had to wonder what on earth it was they were discussing in there. If they'd been killing each other (which was likely) she was sure she would have heard the sounds of their struggle this far down the hall. But all she heard was the low mutters coming from her bedroom door.

Her mother had always taught Kagome that eavesdropping was rude and intrusive. Frankly, Kagome didn't care right then.

So very quietly, Kagome set down her drinks next to the wall of the corridor, along with her bag of biscuits. Then she tiptoed as quietly as possible down the remaining stretch of corridor to her bedroom door, weaving her way around the floorboards she knew creaked to kneel down beside the door and press her ear close to the wood. She wanted to press harder to get better sound, but she didn't want to accidentally push it open.

"…coming."

She caught the tail end of what Miroku was saying. She strained harder to hear more, but there seemed to be a stretch of silence.

"It's coming for you." the sounded like Miroku again. "Well?"

What was coming? Kagome waited with baited breath for Inuyasha's answer.

There was an ominous squeaking sound of bed springs as though someone had just sat down. "I knew it…"

Knew what? Where was the noun in this discussion? Kagome narrowed her eyes as she dared to lean a little further into the door to see if that would help her hearing any better.

"Do you even care?" the sound of someone moving across the floorboards. "I'd be terrified if I were you."

"Well you're a spineless coward." Inuyasha retorted.

"True." Kagome heard Miroku sigh flippantly. "If you want my advice-"

"Which I don't-"

"-Then I suggest you start running for the hills hard and fast." There was a pause before he went on. "But you and I know that you won't be able to run forever. It'll catch you eventually."

"Then… I'll just be staying here, won't I?" Inuyasha replied. Kagome caught the hint of challenge in his voice.

"Sure. Die all the faster." Miroku sounded faintly annoyed now. "The sooner you die the sooner that thing comes after me and the sooner I'll die too. I have a feeling that my own sire would be next in line, but unfortunately she already had a run in with the First and is no longer among us."

Kagome pressed a hand to her mouth. She understood now… The First was coming. The First was coming to kill Inuyasha.

"The First should be here by the end of the week." Miroku went on.

"End of the week? Why not now?"

"The First isn't like us, Inuyasha." More footsteps crossing the floor. "The First is our ancestor, it has immense power, more than all the Wishbringers put together. But at the same time it is powerless. We are little fleas compared to that thing in terms of power. We suck on the First and we draw our power from him. We are the ones who can manipulate and control that power. The First doesn't have that ability, he needs us to draw out his trapped power and use it. And we need him to supply us with the power. It's a symbiotic relationship."

Kagome's eyes had glazed over at some point during that speech.

"Are you calling me a parasite?" Inuyasha suddenly blurted.

"No…" Miroku gave a loud impatient sigh. "I'm saying the First can't use his power like we do. We are the ones who use it. He can't translocate like us-"

"So that's what you call it…"

"Are you listening to me? I'm answering your question here!"

"Actually, I've forgotten what I asked. You've been gassing so long."

Another loud sigh, probably from Miroku. "Look. He's coming here soon to deal with you and all your rule breaking. You're stealing his power to do these things without legalising it with a wish. He's probably pissed at you. You woke him up from his three century long sleep with all your leeching."

Inuyasha mumbled something that Kagome didn't catch. She frowned slightly and unconsciously moved in further to hear better… she didn't expect the door to give way at that precise moment and send her sprawling into her own bedroom at Miroku's feet.

"Good afternoon, Miss Kagome."

"Dammit…"

AN: It might be worth mentioning as well that I don't have writer's block and I already have the ending of this fic sorted so suggestions really aren't needed. And there are still three or four more chapters to go, roughly, but don't quote me on that. 


	23. Prelude to Battle

****

Author's Notes: Well, thank you for all your sympathies and condolences, it's appreciated, but I wasn't too close to my uncle so I'm not too upset or anything. The funeral was nice though, and scattering the ashes over the mountains from a plane was pretty cool.

Anyway, I've been cheered up a lot since then, mostly because I got my O level results a few days ago. I was jumping up and down with joy for a good portion of the day, so it's safe to say that I passed with very high grades ^_^ So high that I'm frightened that I'll get a letter tomorrow telling me they've made a mistake and that my _real _grades are further towards the end of the alphabet… ^_^;; But this means I'll be off to college in two weeks, which may mean that my writing will have to slow down gradually as they pile on the work for A level…

Personally I'm sick of exam levels and never wish to do them again, but there you go.

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 23

Prelude to Battle

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Kagome winced at Inuyasha's loud tone as she began pushing herself up off the floor. "I was… I was looking for my contact lens… I dropped it."

"You don't wear contacts!" he bellowed.

"That's what you think!" Kagome huffed as she straightened up and glared at the two Wishbringers. "But anyway. I couldn't help overhearing what you two were saying in here-"

"I bet." Inuyasha interrupted rudely and turned away shortly to ignore the glare Kagome shot his way.

"You overheard?" Miroku asked.

Kagome nodded slightly. "Is… is the First really coming?"

"Yes." Miroku sighed. "Our days are numbered."

"Mine too?" She winced.

"No." they both replied at the same time, Inuyasha a little more emphatically.

"The First is not after you, Miss Kagome." Miroku told her. "That is why I wanted to keep you out of this. It isn't your problem."

Kagome's fists clenched. "Of course it is! If the First has a problem with Inuyasha then he has a problem with me too! Inuyasha isn't just going to roll over and die – and I'd rather die before I let anyone touch him!"

"You're very loyal, aren't you?" Miroku smiled. 

But Inuyasha didn't agree. "Just keep your nose out of it for once Kagome. This is my problem, not yours. I'll deal with it by myself."

"But it's my fault you broke the rules in the first place." She pointed out. "If I hadn't died-"

"If I hadn't been more careful you wouldn't have died in the first place!"

"You did what you had to do – that isn't your fault! Why should you be punished for something that wasn't your fault?!"

"I shouldn't have saved you – the rules were clear!"

"No one with half a heart would let someone die if it was within their power to save them!" Kagome snapped.

"Oh really?" he narrowed his eyes. "I let Kikyo die though, didn't I?"

Kagome swallowed hard around the lump that had suddenly formed in her throat. "Well…"

"But we've already established that I only have half a heart, remember?" he gave her a dirty look and shifted around the face the window and glare out of it. Kagome stared sullenly down at the floor, vividly remembering his little tutorial using cookies.

Miroku glanced between them. Clearly this was some kind of inside joke thing that he hadn't a clue about. "Well." He unfolded his arms and sighed. "Seeing as how my life is in danger here as well, I'll be sticking around for the next few days until the first arrives. If I can somehow convince him of Inuyasha's innocence… it's worth a try at least."

"Thank you." Kagome said quietly and sincerely.

Inuyasha remained stubbornly quiet.

"Scream if you need me." Miroku said with a shrug before dissipating into the air.

The silence that descended between the last two occupants of the room was so tense and thick that it could be cut with a knife. Kagome shifted uncomfortably to the other foot and glanced across at Inuyasha who was still glaring out the window. He was probably scared…

"We'll fight this guy." Kagome said hesitantly. "I'll die before I let someone just kill you like that."

"Better start digging your grave then." Inuyasha muttered darkly and propped his chin on his palm. For all appearances he seemed uncaring and indifferent. Kagome knew better than that…

Quietly she made her way across the room towards Inuyasha. "Is he really that bad?"

"Well considering he holds all the power that us Wishbringers tap into to use…" Inuyasha trailed off, his gaze getting distant a moment before they snapped back into focus. "Yeah. He's bad. I am to him what a flea is to an elephant…"

"Oh." Kagome wondered how large this First guy had to be.

"In terms of strength, not size, Kagome." He'd obviously seen her strange expression.

"Ohh." Kagome nodded again. "But, that doesn't matter does it? If this guy is overseer then he's bound to be fair and justified. He'd see that you were only doing what was right and-"

"But what I did was wrong!" Inuyasha snapped and pushed off the bed suddenly to put distance between them. "I shouldn't have saved you! I shouldn't have attacked Naraku! I shouldn't have conjured and I shouldn't have lit up that cave!"

Kagome frowned at him. "Are you regretting saving my life then?"

"Maybe." He responded callously.

With a sigh Kagome seated herself on the edge of the bed. She forced aside the jab of hurt that he'd inflicted with that one word. "Then what are we going to do?"

"There's nothing we _can _do." He snapped, passing a hand over his eyes.

"Stop being so pessimistic." She admonished. "That isn't going to help."

"Then what do _you _suggest we do?"

"Well we can't just sit back and wait for this guy to come along and do you in." Kagome tapped her chin thoughtfully. "There must be some way to stop him…"

Inuyasha grew quiet as he watched her. He knew exactly where her thoughts were taking her…

"I suppose…" Kagome scratched her neck and tipped her head in deep thought. "I suppose we could always use the last wish to protect you…"

"No wishes can be used on myself, remember?" he snapped hastily.

Kagome gave him an odd look. "Well… I could always wish for the First to leave you alone."

"That's too unreliable. He'd find a way around it in no time."

Why did he keep shooting down her ideas so quickly without any consideration? "Then… we'll think of something else!" snapped Kagome.

"There is nothing else!"

"Why are you giving up so easily?!" she shot back. "It's like you want to die!"

"Whatever." He turned away and stomped towards the door. "I want that bath."

"Inuyasha! Don't you walk away from me!" he slammed the door after him angrily. "Hey! Fine! Whatever!"

With a furious growl she whirled around and flopped face down on the bed. He could be so infuriating sometimes…

Well, without Inuyasha distracting her while he took his bath, she might be able to think of a way out of their problems. She was willing to do anything and everything in her power to keep Inuyasha safe. He probably saw her as his own charge that needed looking after and protecting, either because she was female or younger, she didn't really know or care. But Kagome was more than willing to take a stand and protect Inuyasha when the need arose. No matter what he said or liked to brag, Inuyasha didn't have all the knowledge and power in the world. That's where she came in to lend a hand…

She hoped she came up with something before the First arrived.

~*~

Kagome's pondering went on for the majority of the day. Her main problem was that she didn't know what this 'First' person was capable of or what kind of person he was. She was half hoping that he was reasonable enough to bargain with or at least talk him around to leaving Inuyasha alone.

And if he wasn't an agreeable person… the only back-up plan that Kagome could come up with was to use her last wish. The only problem then would be deciding how to use the wish without messing up again…

She wanted to share her thoughts with Inuyasha… which on retrospect probably hadn't been such a wonderful idea.

The first step to talking to a huffy Hanyou was always to butter him up first.

"Biscuit?" Kagome waved the packet towards him.

Inuyasha looked up from where he was towel drying his hair on the bedroom floor. He regarded the plastic packet for a moment as though gouging how deadly it could possibly be before shrugging and holding out his hand for her to toss one. That wasn't quite the response Kagome was looking for.

"I'm not throwing it – you with your butterfingers will drop it and these are expensive you know." They weren't, but he didn't need to know that.

"Whatever." He shuffled a little closer, towel still clenched over his hair.

Kagome smiled and kept a firm hold of the sweet until he was within arm reach before deposited it into his hand. And before he got the chance to shuffle back to his corner she snagged his sleeve. "Hey wait – don't you want to put a brush through that?" she indicated his damp hair still under its towel.

Inuyasha gave her another one of those suspicious looks that he gave everyone and everything when he was in a bad mood. "And why would I want to do that?"

"Well if you don't it'll get all knotted and scruffy." She pointed out. "Do you want me to do it?"

That sceptical, suspicious look intensified.

"What, don't you trust me?" she attempted to look hurt. It probably worked seeing as how Inuyasha quickly shrugged and turned his back to her with the age old go-ahead word. "Whatever."

Kagome rolled her eyes, but found it hard for his bad attitude to put her down. She was far too elated that she was being given the chance to live out her fantasy ever since that day when she'd seen him chopping wood! Now all she had to do was somehow convince him to let her wash his hair with some Herbal Essences…

No – that was getting off topic. She needed to concentrate on getting him into a good mood.

Kagome leant across her bed to fetch her brush and straightened quickly as though worried that if she didn't pay attention, Inuyasha would just slither away again. "Here we go." She beamed as she took the brush to his hair and started working through it.

Inuyasha was the kind of guy who could take a beating with only a minor flinch. He could be clawed and only twitch slightly. He could probably take a knife in the gut with a smile as well. But he was male, and well, when anything male was faced with something stupid like a comb, they turned into whiny little babies.

"Ow – do you mind?!" Inuyasha hissed, leaning away from her attentions. "What are you trying to do, scalp me?"

"Well maybe if you held still this would be a whole lot easier on you and me both!" she snapped back.

"You're a sadist!" he accused. "I knew it!"

"Oh, quit being such a baby." She grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "It's best we get this over with or the problem won't go away."

"What problem?!"

"Your hair problem!" she yanked the comb through it again, ignoring his melodramatic hiss of pain. Well this wasn't turning out quite like her fantasies…

Eventually Inuyasha gave up his moaning and groaning, it didn't seem to affect Kagome that much so he just sat sullenly quiet against her bed while she ran the comb through his pale locks. It got easier after a while, and soon the brush was gliding through the mane. Kagome beamed to think how shiny and cared for it would look when it had dried completely.

"Oy…"

"Mm?" Kagome blinked out of her trance and the comb paused in it's tracks. "Something wrong."

Inuyasha seemed to gather himself before he spoke again. Kagome waited expectantly through the pregnant pause. "This First guy… when he comes, I want you and your family to leave."

Kagome darted a frown to the back of his head. "Leave? How do you mean?"

"I mean, go on a little trip or something… stay at a friend's house or whatever. Just… I just don't want you or them to get caught up in this stupid little problem of mine."

Kagome's frown smoothed away. "You're worried about my family?"

"What's wrong with that?" he asked defensively.

"Nothing!" she said quickly, drawing back the comb into her lap. "Nothing, I'm glad." She took a deep breath. "Fine. I'll ask them to go stay at Grandma's for a while."

"Your grandmother?" his tone was questioning.

"Oh – not Grandpa's wife. I meant the other Grandma. Dad's Mom. Her son may be a sack of rotten potatoes but she's still quite nice and makes a mean toffee and mint ice cream sundae."

She saw him nod and began to work on his hair again, silently congratulating herself. She'd never actually said that _she, _herself, would go with her family to her Grandmother's place back in Tokyo.

"You're going with them." He said suddenly, making the smile slide rapidly off her face.

"But I have a right to be here with you when you face him!" she cried in protest. "I'm your master – and that means I have to look out for you because you might not always be able to do it yourself!"

"I can protect myself – I don't need you're help!" his shoulders tensed up.

"We need to be _diplomatic_ with the First, Inuyasha!" she punched a fist angrily against his tense back. "You and Miroku aren't exactly the epitome of tact, are you? You need a woman to help you there. And anyway, if push comes to shove you'll need me there to make a wish that would ultimately save us-"

He whirled around the face her, shoving his nose within an inch of hers. "No wishes this time! Wishes are curses! Don't you understand that?!"

Kagome's mouth worked, but no words came out.

"My curse _kills _people, Kagome!" 

He grabbed her shoulders and gave her a hard shake. She almost unbalanced and had to grab his arms in retaliation to keep from colliding with him or the bed. She finally found her voice. "There is no curse, you fool! Y-you just made it up to explain why people kept dying around you!"

"Shut up – you have no idea what you're talking about." His claws were biting into her shoulders, but she barely felt a twinge of pain.

"Yes, I do! People die and get hurt because _you _are a _Wishbringer_!" she yelled back in his face. "They bring their wishes on themselves! You don't hurt them – your masters hurt themselves!"

"All that means is that I'm just a tool for their pain!"

"What, like a knife or something?!"

"Right! I'm a knife!" he pushed her back and stormed to his feet. Kagome realised he was about to leave in a huff… but not if she had anything to do with it. She needed to know what was wrong first – she had a sure feeling that it wasn't about any imminent encounter with the First.

"W-wait!" she half tumbled off the bed after him as she reached out to grab his clothes to keep him from turning into a cloud of smoke. "All I'm saying is that… you don't have to worry about your curse."

"Oh?" he glared stonily down at her.

Kagome felt, in the position they were in, that she was as good as grovelling at his feet. She made to stand instead. "Your curse… it would only hurt people when wishes were made. Stupid wishes. That's not your fault, it's the master's fault… And if you're worried about your curse hurting me and Souta and everyone, then don't. I'm not about to make my last wish a stupid one."

His fists clenched so tightly, so suddenly, she almost heard his bones creak under the pressure. "That's not what I'm worried about! I don't want you to make the last-"

He cut himself off short. His stormy expression wiped blank and calm, leaving Kagome trying to catch up with his emotions. He sighed and pried her hands off his clothes, still attached as they were. "I'm going to go have a nap. I'm tired." He said simply.

Just as he was about to release her hands, she suddenly clenched her fingers around his. "Oh." She blinked. She'd just realised.

His eyebrow twitched slightly. "Oh?" he echoed. "What 'oh'?"

"Ohhhh…" she stared at him penetratingly.

She was hitting a nerve, she could see. "There is no 'oh'! Don't say 'oh'!"

A tiny smile tilted the corner of her lips. "You don't want me to make the last wish at all do you. You don't want me to because that means you'll have to go back to sleep and then…" she trailed off as her mind caught up with her runaway mouth. The smile faded from her lips as she began to realise…

Just one more wish and she would probably never see Inuyasha again.

How did she feel about that? She'd never really sat down and thought about it for very long yet… Inuyasha obviously had. That's what was eating him, wasn't it? She bit her lip…

She felt sad, tense… a little angry… probably everything Inuyasha was feeling. Did that mean he didn't want to leave her either?

It was almost as if he'd waited for her to come to terms. He sighed and gently, but firmly pulled his hands from hers. "I'm tired." He repeated and dissipated with a swirl of scarlet.

Kagome stood for a moment before sinking slowly onto the edge of the bed. The springs squeaked under her weight as the mattress dipped inwards. She bounced slightly to make it squeak a little more before her eyes snapped back into focus after staring into the distance for too long. She brought a hand up to her face and frowned slightly. "Oh…"

~*~

"So what do you reckon the First will look like?" 

Miroku smiled slightly as he continued watching the tiny kingfisher perch on a small branch above the river water. "Why do you want to know?"

Inuyasha stopped scratching the paint off the rail on the bridge. "Well, if he's coming, I want to know it's him when I see him. So what does he look like?"

"I haven't a clue."

Inuyasha sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. "You're bleeding useless." He griped as he focused his attention back on the wooden railing. Miroku glanced across at him, eyeing the Hanyou's handiwork on the paint job. After a moment he turned back to look down the river.

"You and Miss Kagome don't seem to be on such friendly terms anymore." The older Wishbringer commented in an off-hand way.

Inuyasha's hand stiffened on the rail. "And why is that any of your business."

"It isn't, I was just stating the blindingly obvious." Miroku shrugged.

"I don't see why you're still here anyway!" Inuyasha snapped, getting to his feet. "Personally I think I would stand a better chance against the First if you were gone!"

"You sound like you plan to fight the guy." Miroku raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, shouldn't I?"

"You can't fight the First. It's physically impossible… and really stupid. I wouldn't advise it." Miroku told him. "You need to go into diplomatic negotiations with this guy. For that you need me: a diplomatic kind of guy."

Inuyasha stared at him a moment. "I'm dead."

"Don't be so negative about everything." Miroku scolded. "Hopefully we can all make it through the upcoming ordeal with our lives in tact. I'm very confident that he First won't be too harsh with me."

"You?! What about me?!" Inuyasha jabbed thumb at himself.

"Oh, you'll probably get a slap on the wrist, that's all." Miroku stood up on the bridge as well. "That is unless you do something really stupid or say something even stupider."

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes dangerously.

"And…" Miroku smirked slightly as he slid a sideways look at the patch of paint that Inuyasha had scraped off the wooden rails. Both Inuyasha's and Kagome's initials were scratched in, entwined. "Perhaps you'll make it through without having that last wish used up? That would be a shame wouldn't it. You'd probably never get to see Miss Kagome ever again-"

Never tease a man on the edge. Miroku learned that lesson when he got cut off with Inuyasha's fist embedded in his cheek. He stumbled back a pace or two, cradling his abused cheek with one hand. "Ow… what was that for, bastard?!"

"I knew that gentleman routine was all an act!" Inuyasha snarled. "And that's for taking the piss."

"Yeah?" Miroku stepped up to the challenge and slugged Inuyasha back across the jaw. "Well that was for involving _me _in all your rule breaking and crap!"

Inuyasha, having been caught by surprise, spun as the punch connecting with his face and landed with a thumped on his stomach.

"Are you two at it _again_?" Drawled a voice from the direction of the garage. Both Wishbringers looked up to see Sango standing in the doorway to the former barn, giving them the fish eye. Miroku smiled and waved innocently. "Just doing some push-ups, Miss Sango! Weren't we Inuyasha?"

"No!" Inuyasha snarled from the ground.

Sango just rolled her eyes and went back into the garage. Miroku slapped himself just for good measure as Inuyasha rose from the ground and patted the dust off his clothes. "You're a freaking madman…" he muttered angrily. 

"You always brought out the worst in me, Inuyasha." Miroku sighed, rubbing his red cheek. "But you'll be thanking me one day."

"Yeah, the day you leave this place!" Inuyasha snapped and stomped off towards the house. "Can't wait for _that_ day!"

Miroku pulled a faint scowl as Inuyasha dissipated half way across the yard, probably going to wherever Kagome was. "Well now, that was just rude…"

~*~

Three days had passed since their original warning from Miroku that the First was coming, and still there was no sign of any ultimate Wishbringer like being coming over.

"How do you think he'll arrive?" Kagome asked, looking up momentarily from where she sat on her bed, painting her toenails to glance at Inuyasha. "How will we know when he's arrived?"

"He'll probably ring the doorbell." Inuyasha shrugged, not bothering to look up from his book.

"Well when's he coming then?" Kagome asked reasonably. "You want my family out of here by the time he arrives, so I need to know when he's coming so I can get them going."

"You're going with them, remember!" he looked up with sharp eyes.

"I don't remember saying anything like that." She frowned at him. "I'm staying right here, thank you very much, and nothing you can do or say will change my mind about not abandoning you."

He scowled sulkily and went back to his book. "Whatever."

At last she'd won that little argument. Her face softened slightly as she watched him. She remember another one of their 'little' arguments from yesterday… was he really reluctant to leave? She went back to her toes and pretended to be concentrating hard as she slipped in her comment in what she hoped was an off-hand manner. "I've been thinking…"

"Every time you say that something bad happens." He remarked.

She rolled her eyes. "About the other day… when you said that you didn't want me to make the last wish-"

"I never said that." He said abruptly.

Kagome glanced up sceptically, she saw his eyes still on the book, but she doubted he was actually reading it. "Well you meant it… didn't you?"

His silence was as good as any yes.

With a sigh, Kagome screwed the top back on the bottle of nail varnish and shuffled across the bed, closer to where he sat against the pillow. He looked up suspiciously as she got closer, looking as if he expected her to brandish some concealed knife at him. "What are you doing?" he asked stiffly.

"I'm going to hug you."

"Please don't."

"But you need one."

"No, I really don't." he was shuffling away as fast as she was moving in on him.

"Well, then I need one."

"Why would you need one."

"I'm female, I need at least three hugs a day to live." She told him half seriously and stopped cornering him. "But besides that… I just want to tell you that you're not alone."

"I know that, you're here aren't you?" He was close to plastering himself back against the wall.

"Don't be such a goof…" she sighed. "I meant that you're not the only one upset here. I don't want you to leave either."

He stared at her for a moment, before blinking. "What?"

"You heard me." She smiled tentatively and looked away from him, her face heating up a little. "You're my friend Inuyasha… I don't want you to just disappear from my life. Not just like _that_." She snapped her fingers to demonstrate.

He seemed to relax slightly, she saw him shift uncomfortably out of the corner of her eye. "But it's always been like that." He said dully. "Ten wishes is all you get. You get no more after that."

"But…" she chewed her lip slightly. "It's not fair…"

"It's not meant to be."

"But, we're friends aren't we?" she looked up hopefully. He seemed to watch her face intently for a moment before smiling weakly and nodding. "So… so I'll be sad to see you go… and you'll be sad to go too, right?"

__

Please dear god don't let him say no, she thought.

"I guess…" he replied vaguely.

But that wasn't a much better response than 'no'. Didn't he care? She lowered her head slightly and stared intently at her lap, determined not to let him see how much such a vague answer could hurt her. Her head shot up again, though, when she felt the bed dip and squeak under Inuyasha's movement. Seconds later she felt his arm wrap around her shoulders and tug her gently back into a very masculine sort of 'buddy' hug.

It was such a distant hug, Kagome didn't feel anything from him. With a roll of her eyes she turned into him, sneakily wrapping her arms around his neck before he could protest. She smothered her grin in his shoulder as he began protesting futilely.

"Oh for… why'd you go and do that?" he grumbled, arms slack at his sides. "You're just taking advantage of me!"

Kagome ignored his griping as she tactfully inhaled his warm, comforting scent without his notice. She silently sang a chorus of hallelujah in her head when she heard him finally give in and reciprocate her embrace. 

"I don't think we should get too upset about this…" he murmured quietly over her shoulder. "I'm still right here, aren't I?"

"I know." Her smile faded slightly. "But for how long will you be right here?"

He didn't reply, but his arms tightened fractionally around her slight frame… almost as if he was afraid to let go.

AN: Back soon hopefully…


	24. The Visitor

****

Author's Notes: Yet again, I have to ask people to stop sending me suggestions, I've already said several times that I have already plotted the story out and I don't need any help whatsoever, but still I get emails from people who just don't bother to listen. But don't worry, I can tell the difference between suggestions and people trying to predict the ending for their own amusement, believe me. Predictions are harmless (until someone gets it bang on) and I enjoy reading them but I don't want other people writing my story, thank you very much. 

On a better note, I've started college now and believe me when I say you have to hit the ground running considering the work they're already laying on us. First exams are in May… which means I'll have to spend my free time studying instead of writing… but I promise I'll squeeze in the time to make new chapters as often as humanly possible. 

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 24

The Visitor…

"Hit me."

Kagome locked gazes with Inuyasha across the coffee table and narrowed her eyes, trying to decipher what he was thinking. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Hit me." He nodded slightly, his own eyes narrowing in challenge.

"Alright then…" she gave a soft sigh… before picking a card up from the deck on the table and slapped it before Inuyasha. "There."

He closed one eye timidly as he reached forward and pulled the card towards him, then lifted it clear of the table to peer at it dubiously. Kagome waited for his reaction. After a moment both eyes popped open and he glanced up at her. "How much is a Jack worth again?"

She sighed. How many times had they gone over this? "One or eleven."

He snapped his fingers angrily. "Damn. I'm out then."

Kagome smiled and set down her cards. "Wanna play another game?"

"Nah, I'm tired of losing blackjack… let's do some more arm wrestling."

"No, my arm still hurts from the last time." She groaned slightly as she fell backwards and lay on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

A beat of silence passed.

"He could be coming down the road this very minute…" Kagome said quietly.

She could just _feel_ Inuyasha roll his eyes. "I very much doubt that." 

Kagome pushed herself back into her sitting position to shoot Inuyasha a sceptical look. "So when's he coming?"

"I don't know!" he snapped.

Kagome blew out a heavy sigh and rolled her head back to gaze up at the ceiling again. Maybe it wasn't best to talk about the First anymore… it seemed a very touchy subject all around. Even she didn't like talking about it… but only because it was an edgy reminder that at any moment now, Inuyasha could be leaving her for good…

She hoped Inuyasha was grouchy for the same reason… though she hated the fact that if these really were their last few days together, all they would have done was bicker and snap at one another. Not the pleasant memories she'd wish to carry for the rest of her life…

Deciding she'd just about had enough of thinking about depressing things, Kagome decided to turn her mind to other things that had been bothering. One namely being Miroku.

Inuyasha glanced up at her warily as she suddenly stood up from the coffee table and walked over to the living room window to gaze outside. "What are you doing? Waiting for him to come trundling down the road?" he asked shortly.

"Actually I was wondering something about Miroku…" Kagome said distantly.

He quickly hopped to his feet and padded over to the window beside her. "Wondering? About what exactly?"

"Well…" Kagome tilted her head and scratched behind her ear. "You know when you said there was a rule about Wishbringers not being able to leave their masters for more than two days?"

"Yes…?" he answered slowly, not catching her drift. They both had their focus beyond the window, watching Miroku sitting on the wall beside the gateway into the drive… he wasn't doing much… probably chewing gum maybe.

"Well, it mustn't apply to ninth generation Wishbringers." Kagome said at last.

"Of course it must. It applies to _everyone_." He argued.

"Then… how long has Miroku been here, waiting for the first with us?" Kagome asked.

"Three and a half da… oh." He finally saw what she meant.

Kagome made a gesture of triumph. "See what I mean? Miroku's been here for three and a half days, day and night, so either he's breaking one of the rules or…"

"His master is here?" Inuyasha filled in for her.

"Exactly."

They both fell quiet as they pondered the very same, obvious question. Who was his master then?

As they watched a new figure walked onto the scene in front of the house. Sango. A dawning smile of realisation spread across Kagome's face as she observed the mechanic girl heading towards the wall where Miroku sat. Inuyasha remained obliviously staring. As they watched, Sango stopped beside Miroku and pulled herself up to sit beside him, offering him something from her hand which was probably some sort of snack. After an exchange of a few words Miroku wound up slapping himself.

Inuyasha snorted with laughter as Sango could be seen elbowing him in the ribs before mooching off again, sans one snack. Kagome watched, completely bewildered. "Why does he keep doing that?"

"What, slapping himself?" Inuyasha sniggered. "Dunno, but it's damn entertaining."

"Sadist."

"I know."

Kagome folded her arms with a smile. "But at least we now know who Miroku's master is."

"We do?"

Kagome turned slowly and blinked at him. "You can't be _that _blind…"

~*~

The second warning that the First was coming came the very next morning; when the phone rang.

"Can someone get that?" Mrs Higurashi called from the laundry room where she was stuck doing her ironing. "Dad?!"

Grandpa, who was currently burying his nose in the Sunday paper merely twitched the pages at the kitchen table. "Kagome, get the phone, dear!"

Kagome pulled a face from her position on the sofa. "Souta! Phone!"

"Buyo! Phone!" echoed the response from somewhere else in the house. Kagome frowned. "Souta – we don't have that cat anymore and it wouldn't be able to answer the phone even if we did!"

"Oh!" came his response. "Inuyasha! Get the phone!"

The Hanyou groaned faintly from his position of being sprawled beneath Kagome's feet in front of the sofa. "No!" he yelled back shortly.

Mrs Higurashi was getting desperate and the phone was still ringing as insistently as ever. "Someone, please, my hands are tied down!" she called again.

Kagome took pity. "Gramps! Answer the phone!"

"Souta, phone!"

"Kagome, phone!"

"Inuyasha-"

"No need to yell, I'm right here!" he shouted back, scowling towards the Tv set.

There was a faint sigh from Mrs Higurashi as she put down her iron carefully and pattered off towards the kitchen to pick up the phone that still rung shrilly just a few feet away from Grandpa's head. She lifted it her ear. "Hello?"

Over in the living room Inuyasha and Kagome had broken out into another squabble. "Get your feet out of my face!" he batted at her sock clad toes.

"You get your face out of my feet." She ignored him and continued to swing her feet carelessly around, succeeding in kicking his ears a few times.

"They stink!"

"_You _stink!"

"Liar!"

"No, you're the liar!" she giggled as he grabbed both feet in his hands and tried to drag her off the sofa. She grabbed the backrest with both hands, her giggling evolving into fully fledged laughter. His tugging caused the sofa to scoot forward a little bit and even he found himself dissolving into laughter as he braced one foot against the piece of furniture and attempted to wrench her out of her grip. "You're feet are cold!" he complained, but he was still laughing.

"You're hands are too warm!" she writhed against the sofa, trying to twist out of his fingers, except by now all her laughing was making her breathless and winded… she could barely keep a hold of the backrest anymore.

"Kagome?"

At the sound of her mother's call Inuyasha released her feet and rolled back onto his side to continue watching Tv. The laughter faded in her throat and she looked up towards the living room doorway. "Yes, Mom?"

"It's for you, dear."

Kagome ran a hand through her hair to set it straight again and picked herself up off the sofa to head for the kitchen, not forgetting to give Inuyasha a playfully pathetic kick in the backside as she passed him. She rolled her eyes at his loud cry of "Abuse! That's abuse!".

In the kitchen she took the phone off her mother and put it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hi, Kagome."

She didn't recognise the voice at all. "Uh…?"

"Listen, I know you want to ship your family out of the house before I arrive so this is just a heads up so you have the time, but you better be quick. My flight's getting in at half past one exactly and I'll arrive there by three. I'd be there sooner but the traffic's going to be bad and my cab driver's going to be Swedish and slow, but there you go."

"Uh…" Kagome repeated.

"Oh, and a small favour? Could you ask Miroku or Inuyasha to get me some of those Cadbury chocolate fingers? They're my favourite."

"Uh…"

"Thanks."

"Uh…" She wasn't coming up with anything intelligent so far if 'uh' was all she could say. Then something horrible occurred to her. "How do you know about Inuyasha and Miroku?" she asked warily.

The voice answered her question with one of his own. "Well, who do you think this is?" 

Kagome swallowed past the lump forming in her throat. "The First?"

"See, I knew you were a smart girl."

"Uh…"

"Well, you better go tell the Hanyou, I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to hear I'm coming. See ya!"

"W-Wait a minute!" she started suddenly and clutched the phone with both hands. "What are you go-"

The dead buzzing sound cut her off and she realised the First had disconnected already. She listened blankly for a few moments before remembering where she was and set the phone back in its cradle. Her Grandpa glanced up at last from his paper "Who was that, Kagome?"

"Uh…" she wracked her brains for something wittier to say. "Friend. From the old school."

"Oh." Grandpa went back to his paper. His limit of ten words for the morning used up. He probably wouldn't speak until after lunch now, or if someone asked about a legend. Kagome turned, still worrying her bottom lip with her teeth, and headed back for the living room. Inuyasha was still sprawled out on his side watching the box, listening attentively to some documentary and how they made Curly Fries.

"Inuyasha?" she called tentatively.

"Yeah?"

"That was the First just on the phone." She said slowly. Inuyasha seemed to stiffen before rolling onto his back lazily to look at her.

"You what?" he frowned slightly probably not sure he heard her correctly.

"The First. He was just on the phone. Said he'd be here by three this afternoon." She repeated the information, but even she had doubts that this was for real.

"He did?"

"Yes."

"On the phone? Just now?"

"Yes."

He pushed himself upright, his eyes narrowing further. "Seriously."

"Yes!" she nodded emphatically.

He blinked and stared at her. "Well… what did he sound like?"

"Like…" Kagome pulled a face as she tried to remember vaguely. "Like… I don't know."

"It was a guy right?"

"Probably…" She shrugged. "Could have been a girl. Bit of a gender neutral voice… like Michael Jackson I think…"

"The First sounds like 'Michael Jackson'?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. She shrugged helplessly again. "And he's going to be here by the afternoon?" she nodded again. "Well… better get your folks out of the way then?"

~*~

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us honey?" Mrs Higurashi called as she was practically frog-marched out of the house to the cab by her daughter. "Grandma would really like to see you again."

"I think I'll stay here, someone needs to pay the car mechanic after all." Kagome released her mother's arm as they reached the vehicle and handed her mother's suitcase over to the driver. Grandpa was already inside while Souta was busy fetching a jar of frog-spawn from his room to smuggle into his bag.

"You sure?" Her mother looked sympathetic. "I thought you couldn't wait for a chance to go back to the city."

"Well…" Kagome fumbled for an excuse. "I could go back… but then Inuyasha would be all alone and then he'd start chewing furniture and whimpering at all hours of the night."

A knowing look dawned in her mother's eye. Kagome wasn't sure where that came from. "Ah… I see, you want to spend some alone time with Inuyasha." Mrs Higurashi smiled at her.

"N-not alone." Kagome quickly denied. "I mean, Sango's still around… and Inuyasha's friend, Miroku is practically living here now."

"True." Her mother contemplated. "It seems like we take in waifs and strays like some kind of animal pound…"

Souta's stomping footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs in the house. Mrs Higurashi looked up to beckon him over as he came out the front door with his bags and a suspicious looking bulge under his sweater. "Come on young man, let's get you loaded up. Kiss your sister goodbye."

Souta attempted to hurry past Kagome, blowing a kiss into the air. "Bye, sis!"

"Hold it!" Kagome hooked him around the collar and dragged him back. "You call that a kiss?"

He squirmed in her grip. "No – what are you doing-?!"

Kagome grinned as she placed one big, loud, wet kiss on his cheek. "That'll teach you!" she laughed as he tore himself out of her arms and wiped his face repeatedly with his sleeve.

"I'll never be clean again." He shuddered as he hopped into the back of the cab with Grandpa (still reading the Sunday newspaper from that morning).

Mrs Higurashi turned and gave her daughter one last affectionate embrace and a slightly more delicate kiss on the cheek than Kagome had given Souta. "I'll see you when we get back on Wednesday. Will you last that long without us?"

Kagome smiled and hugged her mother harder. "I'll survive." She liked embracing her mother… she always smelt the same. A wonderful mixture of washing powder and some perfume that she'd always worn since Kagome was a little girl. Kagome could pick out her mother's gentle scent from a crowd of millions…

Mrs Higurashi stepped back and ran a hand along her arm as she took a few paces towards the cab. "Take care now. No wild parties. No boys. No alcohol and no sex. Got that?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Got it."

Her mother got into the back and shut the door behind her. As the driver started up the engine she wound the window down. "I mean it. No sex. Not before any weddings at least."

Now that was just embarrassing. Kagome could feel her face heat up. "Mom… just go already!"

Mrs Higurashi waved cheerfully. "Bye Inuyasha! Tell your friend Miroku goodbye as well! See you all Wednesday!"

Kagome waved them off as the car rolled out of the drive and stayed waving until it was out of sight down the road behind the trees. She sighed heavily and allowed her smile to slip slightly. Honestly… her family was probably safer away from her and Inuyasha round about now. She turned and blinked in surprise when she realised Inuyasha was sat on the porch steps, regarding her with a strangely mild expression.

She graced him with a genuine smile as she walked back towards the porch and sat down next to him… admittedly, closer than was really necessary… but hey, Inuyasha smelled almost twice as good as her mother any day. "You look unusually calm." She told him. "What drug did you take?"

"None whatsoever." He said shortly, but with a rueful smile.

"So you aren't scared anymore?" she asked.

"Well, I figured anyone who likes these," he held up a blue packet of chocolate fingers in his hand, "They can't be all that bad…"

"What are these things anyway?" Kagome took the packet off him and turned it over in her hands and staring at it as if she had x-ray vision and could see through the packaging.

"They're like little sticks of biscuit or wafer coated in chocolate." He licked his lips. "I originally got two packets."

"What happened to the other packet?"

He patted his stomach. Kagome made a knowing sound. "Oh…"

They lapsed back into silence, both staring off in the direction the cab had driven off in. Eventually Inuyasha tilted his head towards Kagome. "You're Grandma's gonna have a hell of a shock when they turn up on her doorstep out of the blue."

"They think she's expecting them." Kagome wrinkled her brow with a frown. "I hope she doesn't send them back."

~*~

Half past two came around and the anxiety in the house was mounting by the minute. Kagome had given up on Inuyasha, he was too restless and pent-up to talk to safely. So she decided that Sango was probably thirsty from all her work, so she took out a can of coke and a sandwich.

"Oh you shouldn't have." Sango said as she spotted Kagome approaching the garage with the food and drink, but in truth she was smiling and looked pretty grateful.

"I figured all that fixing was exhausting." Kagome reasoned with a shrug as she handed the plate and can over and sat down on a stack of unused bricks piled against the garage wall. She cracked open her own can of soda that she'd brought along.

It was a moment before she realised that Sango was watching her closely. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing." Sango took a bite of her sandwich. "I just noticed that everyone around here is pretty tense lately… well, everyone except the three that just left. Your knuckles have gone white."

Kagome looked down quickly and realised she'd been gripping the edge of the bricks too tightly. "Oh… sorry…"

"It's because the First is coming isn't it?" Sango said so casually that it took Kagome a few moments to really process what she'd said.

"Sorry?"

"I would have thought you'd have figured it out by now." Sango smiled and took a sip of soda. "I'm Miroku's master."

"I had my suspicions…" Kagome admitted sheepishly. "Bit of a coincidence how you both ended up here though-"

"Oh no. Miroku talked me into staying around here to fix your Grandfather's car… just so he could stick around too." Sango told her. "I decided I owed him one at least…"

"You owe him?" Kagome tilted her head.

Sango smiled slightly, obviously thinking something good. "Well when I found Miroku in that empty paint tin, my little brother had leukaemia… and he wasn't recovering at all."

"Oh." Kagome brought a hand over her mouth in shock. "I'm sorry…"

"No, it's alright. Because the first wish I used was to cure him of his illness… it was a miracle. He recovered overnight, literally, the doctors were completely stumped." Sango finished off her sandwich. "So I really do owe Miroku a lot… except sometimes he can be a little beyond my control."

"I got that feeling as well." Kagome confided in her. "When I first found Inuyasha, he was so reckless and wild… he'd beat up on the other kids in my school and do really mean tricks on me… he was so out of control it wasn't funny."

"Seems tame enough to me now." Sango commented.

"Well that's because Wishbringers are like puppies. You have to be firm with them but entertain them as well otherwise they'll just walk all over you." Kagome said wisely. "I like to think I've housetrained Inuyasha very well by now."

Sango looked thoughtfully off into space. "I wonder if that would work with Miroku."

"You really have a problem with him?" Kagome asked. "He seemed ok to me."

"Oh, it's not that. It's just that he goes chasing after every short skirt and pretty face he sees, it's embarrassing." The mechanic ran a hand over her face as though weary.

Kagome smiled and patted her compassionately on the shoulder. "Tell you what, when all this is over I'll give you a few tips on how to handle your Wishbringer. I've picked up quite a few."

Sango smiled slightly. "You sound confident that we'll both still have our Wishbringers after this."

Kagome hopped down from the pile of bricks and brushed off the seat of her jeans. "I have to be." She replied simply and was about to leave when she turned back to Sango with a odd expression. "Can I ask you something, Sango?"

"Of course."

"Did… Has Miroku ever mentioned a curse of any kind?" Kagome asked quietly.

Sango looked up as if trying to remember. "Uh… no, I don't think so."

"You don't have any problems with your wishes? Like, do they go wrong sometimes?"

"Well I've only made two wishes so far… they both turned out fine, thanks." Sango cocked her head. "Why?"

"Oh… nothing…" Kagome shook her head with a smile. "Just curious. But you wouldn't happen to know if Miroku mentioned anything about how to set a Wishbringer free, did he?"

Sango suddenly sighed. "We had a lengthy talk about that. Apparently there's no way. I asked, we argued, but he's adamant that there is only one way to free a Wishbringer from its fate…"

Kagome's breath caught in her throat. "What is it?"

Sango shrugged a little sadly. "To die."

Another hope crushed. Kagome schooled her expression to keep her worry and disappointment from showing. "Oh… never mind then." She turned and headed off to find Inuyasha.

She didn't notice Sango watching her walk away with sympathetic eyes.

~*~

Kagome found him around the front of the house with Miroku… both waiting semi-patiently on the porch. Between them sat a box of opened chocolate fingers… half of them had been consumed. Nervous Wishbringers resorting to compulsive eating… Hmm…

"What time is it?" she asked as she neared the porch.

"Um…" Inuyasha glanced up at the position of the sun. "We have ten minutes."

Kagome wedged herself between the two Wishbringers and pulled the chocolates onto her lap. Glancing between the pair she could practically feel the tension crackling through the air like electricity… and she was sitting right in the middle of it.

"Maybe I should get you two some valium…?"

"Maybe you should get some yourself." Was Inuyasha's slightly hostile reply.

There was that feeling of cracking a joke at a funeral again…

Time to try and lighten the situation at least. She cleared her throat. "I love these things, you know." She picked one of the chocolate sticks up and examined it in front of her. "Just the right size to… pop in your mouth and suck on."

There was a sharp slapping sound and Kagome glanced up at Miroku to find him nursing his cheek. Inuyasha was shaking slightly, a hand pressed to his mouth probably trying to suppress his laughter.

She shrugged and began crunching on the end of the chocolate finger. She offered one to Inuyasha. "You want to suck on one too?"

Miroku continued slapping himself silly.

Inuyasha sighed and moved the box from her lap. "We have to save some for the First, right? You'll gobble them all up before he arrives."

"Says you who's just eaten a packet and a half." She pointed out. "Hypocrite – and you – stop slapping yourself!"

"I can't help it!" Miroku protested. "Will someone please sit on my hands?"

"Why, so you can grope their ass?" Inuyasha asked slyly.

This only incurred another series of slaps. Kagome just shook her head in bewilderment and looked between them. "For higher beings, you're both pretty idiotic."

Inuyasha suddenly clamped a hand over her mouth. "Shh!"

"Don't 'shh' me!" she tried to snap hotly against his hand… only it came out more of a muffled protest. Either way he probably understood perfectly well.

"Don't you hear that?" he asked them.

Miroku and Kagome stilled long enough to open their ears to the air around them. But no matter how hard Kagome strained, all she heard was the surrounding whisper of forest trees and melodious little bird songs among those branches. Somewhere behind her she could hear Sango tinkering with the engine, occasionally letting out a distant sounding curse as her efforts failed (well it _was_ a very broken car).

Kagome pried Inuyasha's hand off her mouth. "I don't hear anything unusual." She said quietly as if she were in a library.

"I don't hear anything either." Miroku agreed.

"Well that's because you're both deaf." Inuyasha retorted curtly. "It sounds like a car engine."

Kagome glanced at her watch. "It's almost three o'clock…"

"Could be the First." Nodded Miroku.

In fact they were all pretty much certain that this was the First… arriving at last. Kagome felt Inuyasha tense up beside her, and just to reassure him she reached out and folded his hand beneath hers, interlocking their fingers. She felt a warm rush when his hand squeezed back… it was all the reassurance she needed back.

"Isn't anyone going to hold my hand?" Miroku asked dryly.

Kagome shuffled a little closer to Inuyasha who in turn glared at Miroku, a silent warning to keep his distance. The former human sighed and went back to watching the road. He was probably just as anxious as Inuyasha at that point.

"We'll be ok." Kagome tried to sound optimistic and confident. But she thought that she came off as weak and watery instead. Well, at least Inuyasha was there to hold her hand.

For the next few minutes nothing stirred on the road, and Kagome began to wonder if Inuyasha's ears were beginning to play tricks on him in his old age. There was no sign of the First… and she sorta hoped that it had been a hoax call or something.

But those fragile little hopes shattered when a distant humming sound merged into existence. Kagome glanced around for a moment, trying to discern which direction the noise was coming from, and only until it grew louder and more motor-engine-ish did she realise it was coming from the opposite direction to which her family had left in.

"Here we go…" Miroku muttered darkly as the roar of the engine grew so close that it could only be a few metres out of sight.

It was only a few seconds before the vehicle rounded the corner, a streak of yellow against the backdrop of green forest foliage. The trio on the porch followed the taxi's progress as it shot down the road towards them, doing at least eighty miles per hour. But even as it neared it didn't seem to be slowing down.

Kagome chewed her lip anxiously, maybe it wasn't their taxi after all?

But alas, no sooner had that desperate thought flashed through her head than the wheels of the cab screeched and the vehicle came to a screaming halt right in front of their driveway. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Inuyasha grimace… she didn't blame him.

The grand entrance was here at last…

AN: Cliff-hanger? Yep. Sorry. But I'll update as soon as I can.


	25. Crime and Punishment

****

Author's Notes: Well I can tell you all that half of you guessed correctly who the first was. A quarter guessed but were only doing it as a joke, and the rest didn't have a clue… (you'll find out who it was in second). Those of you who guessed right, prepare to look smug.

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 25 

Crime and Punishment

Somehow the grand entrance didn't really go like Kagome had expected it to.

For a start the First was supposed to be old and wise, after all he was as old as time… supposedly. Kagome had had a mental picture of him in her head since she'd first heard of him. A little old Arabian man with a turban, bangles and the lower half of his body nothing but mist like a true Genie… uh, Wishbringer, accompanied by a snowy beard that probably trailed the floor.

The person who all but fell out of the cab in their driveway was a youth. Younger than a youth. In fact, Kagome reckoned he was a minor.

"Get out!" The cab driver yelled from his open window. He had a thick foreign accent. Probably Swedish… "And you can take your money and stick it up your _häck _– along with your opinions, smart boy!"

"They're not opinions! They're observations!" The kid fisted his hands against his hips. "And for your information, looser, your cab _does _smell of fermented fish!"

"_Barn skall ses men inte höras…_" the driver muttered as he began to rev his engine.

"I know what that means, you freak!" The youth yelled.

"Go back to school!" the driver yelled as he slammed his foot down on the gas and sped off.

The kid was practically hopping mad now. "I know where you live!"

The roar of the cab's engine faded into the distance and the dust left in its wake began to settle back down on the ground again. Slowly the youth took a deep breath and patted down his clothes to brush off the puffs of dust that had landed on him as well… then he turned and grinned at them.

Kagome was the first to move. She grinned back and sent him a little wave. "Gosh… he's quite sweet looking!" she whispered to the two Wishbringers beside her.

Miroku was so stiff that he could have been traded for a stone statue and no one would be able to tell the difference… Inuyasha just stared with his jaw hanging wide open.

Slowly Kagome got to her feet. "Uh… hi. Are you the first?"

"First, last, somewhere in the middle? Who cares?!" The kid hefted a bag on his shoulder and barged past the trio into the house through the open door. Kagome spun, trying to keep track of him. She was amazed at how short he actually was… "And seeing as how dog-boy ate all the candy, I'll just help myself to a sandwich. Is that all right?"

Kagome opened her mouth to respond.

"Thanks." He interrupted before she'd even spoken and disappeared down the hall into the kitchen. Kagome quickly trotted after him followed by a very slow, disbelieving Inuyasha. Miroku remained gob-smacked on the front porch. 

When Kagome arrived in the kitchen, the kid was already rummaging around the fridge. "Now where's the ham… ah hah!"

It was in Kagome's knowledge that Wishbringers never made their own food, they always nicked someone else's. Only because whenever Inuyasha was desperately starving, he'd only have to click his fingers to summon a packet of crisps from the kitchen, or even a supermarket ten miles away. Seeing the boy making his own food was odd…

Though hadn't Miroku already told her that the First had different powers than his offspring? Well… no matter who or what he was, he looked like a child and spoke like a child… and she found herself unconsciously slipping into older sister role. "Did you have a good journey?"

"Awful actually." The kid responded as he pressed the sandwich down flat with his hands then licked his fingers. "Airport was choca-block with all sorts… the plane was delayed two hours before it finally got cancelled and we had to go on another instead. Then no sooner do I step off the plane at Narita then some wise ass points a knife at my neck and makes off with my plane ticket."

"That's awful!" Kagome sympathised. Inuyasha hovered behind her, not really sure what to do with himself now. Miroku had joined them as well, but wasn't being much use.

"I know, I know. But what an idiot. They were _used _plane tickets. Can't use them once they've been used. Everyone knows that." The kid sat down at the table and chomped into the sandwich.

Finally Inuyasha spoke. "You got mugged?! But you're the First!"

"And?" The kid rolled his eyes as he chewed. "It's not like he got away with anything good. Besides, I know exactly where he lives and what his name is, so I could call the police this very minute and have him arrested."

"But you're the First!" Inuyasha repeated. "Kick his ass yourself!"

"Cretin." The kid snorted derisively and ignored as Kagome struggled to restrain the Hanyou from punching him.

Miroku took the stand. "You know where the man lives? Did he tell you?"

"No, it's just one of those things that you know… I know everything there is to know… you know?"

They stared blankly at him.

"You don't know, do you?" He stared at them a moment before setting what remained of his sandwich down on its pinched the bridge of his nose like he was getting a headache. "This is ridiculous… people are so misinformed these days."

"Well that's Miroku's fault. He's been informing us." Inuyasha said quickly. Miroku sighed and gave him a flat look. 

"What happened to the good old days when magic was booming and people would hunt for a life time searching for a Wishbringer to call their own?" the kid gave the ceiling a bewildered look. "You people don't know you're born."

"Well you look like you were born yesterday." Inuyasha said. Kagome stamped on his foot and he quickly added, "With all due respect, Mr First guy… kid… ow, that really hurt! On bare feet as well – _and _you're wearing heels you little madam-"

"Do you always let him treat you like that?" The First asked Kagome directly. Inuyasha snapped his mouth shut as Kagome blinked in surprise.

"Like what?"

"Like he owns you and not the other way around?" The kid shook his head. "Don't feel you have to take any crap from that guy, he lives to serve you, that's all."

Inuyasha's fists clenched at his sides and Kagome glanced at him warily, wondering if he would jump the kid or not. She looked back at the First. "He's still a person though. My equal no matter what he is."

The kid just laughed. "Yeah ok, whatever you say. Where's the Tv? Living room, right?" He hopped off his chair and slipped between them and out the door again. Kagome scurried after him quickly, whilst Inuyasha trailed grumpily behind Miroku.

"Well, isn't your purpose of existing to serve others as well?" Miroku asked as they entered the living room. The First switched on the Tv and flicked straight to the children's channel.

"Don't put me on your level." He said arrogantly. "I'm far more superior to the lies of Wishbringers. I am the First don't you know."

"We knew." They all chorused.

"I'm having doubts though." Inuyasha added.

"Yeah," the kid leaned towards them. "But while you two are suckered to serving up a certain number of wishes that matches your generation to the first lucky or unlucky bozo who picks you up, I am trapped in no servitude to humans."

"You don't say." Miroku said. He sounded weary.

Kagome sat down on the sofa beside the kid. "Do you have a name?" she asked with a smile.

He looked at her warily for a moment. "Of course I have a name. I picked it myself."

"And what do you call yourself?" she pressed on.

The boy fidgeted uncomfortably. Kagome could see that a simple question alone made him uneasy. "Shippo." He answered finally. "But don't go blabbin' that around."

"We won't." Kagome's smiled widened. "So if you're a First generation, does that mean you grant one wish?"

"And if you're the only one in your generation, you must have a lot of power for granting it." Miroku commented. "You could probably grant anything anyone wanted."

Shippo's mouth twisted into a thoughtful pose. "Actually, I'm not the First."

"I knew it!" Inuyasha jabbed a finger at him. "No way could the almighty first be a little pip-squeak with ginger hair!"

"Hey!" Shippo leapt up to stand on the arm rest so he could be closer to Inuyasha's eye level. "Watch who you call a pip-squeak, pal!"

"Pipe down brat!" Inuyasha smirked and flicked the boy's nose. A mistake, since it then put his hand dangerously close to Shippo's mouth and Shippo didn't hesitate to bite. "OW!"

"No biting!" Kagome quickly pulled the boy off of the Hanyou and set him back down on the sofa. "But if you aren't the First then who is?"

"Oh I'm not saying I'm not the one they call the First." Shippo said hotly. "I just meant that I'm not the First Wishbringer at least. I only created the First generation of Wishbringers. Technically they are all Firsts… but like I said, over time things get vague and forgotten and you young people get all the facts messed up." He glared at Inuyasha. "So you better watch your mouth around me!"

"Oh I'm so scared." Inuyasha glared back flatly.

"Shippo…" Kagome. "If you're not a Wishbringer then what are you?"

"Hungry." He rubbed his stomach with a frown.

"No… I meant, _what _kind of being are you. If you're not human and you're not Wishbringer… then what are you?"

"Oh, well, I'm not too sure myself actually." He admitted.

"He's a dwarf." Inuyasha put in helpfully.

"I'd say more like a pixie, perhaps." Miroku rubbed his chin.

"No. A tanuki, maybe?" Inuyasha looked at the ninth generation. Miroku nodded thoughtfully. "Maybe."

"Oh shut up!" Shippo snapped angrily at them both. Kagome hurriedly made calming gestures at them both behind the boy's back. "I'm a higher being – that's all you need to know!"

"Got it, got it!" Kagome said quickly. "So… you don't grant wishes at all."

"No." Shippo sniffed with a superior air. "I answer questions."

Miroku snapped his fingers. "You're an oracle!" Shippo pulled a face at him. "You cannot define my being in a single work, Wish-binger!"

"Is that some kind of insult?" Inuyasha scowled incredulously. "'Cause it sucks."

"As I was saying!" Shippo went on loudly like he hadn't heard. "I can answer any question known to mankind. From why your fingers prune in the bath to the meaning of life."

"The meaning of life? What's that then?" Inuyasha asked with interest.

Shippo glared at him. "I'd tell you but it would only succeed in giving you a headache, pea brain."

It was Miroku's turn to restrain Inuyasha this time.

"I will answer one official question to every one person who come across me." Shippo went back to watching Tv. "But that's not what I came for. I came to punish him, not to enter the Spanish inquisition." He jerked a thumb at Inuyasha. "I keep check on my Wishbringers to see who's been naughty and who's been nice. Your name seems to keep popping up in all these localised disasters."

"And you're here to punish me?" Inuyasha said evenly.

"After this show finishes." Shippo said dismissively. "And after I have some dinner, I'm really hungry after that flight."

"Of course you are," Inuyasha grumbled and stomped off. Miroku excused himself from the room to follow him out of the front door again. He caught up with Inuyasha just as he reached the oil tank.

"I think things may be in our favour." He told him. "The First may be older than all of us put together, but he _is _still a child."

"An arrogant little shit-head who's out to make my life a misery!" Inuyasha snapped back.

"Well only because you couldn't keep your flapping lips shut!" Miroku shot back. "If you hold your tongue maybe he'd go easier on you. You were provoking him in there."

"He was provoking me!" Inuyasha protested.

"Best leave this to the diplomats like me and Kagome." He responded before walking off again. Inuyasha flicked him a rude gesture with his hand and flopped down huffily onto his back to soak then sun.

Who knew? Maybe this was the last time he was get to feel its warmth on his face?

~*~

"Shippo?" Kagome glanced over her shoulder as she cooked dinner. "What are you planning to do with Inuyasha?"

"Why, kill of him of course."

Kagome's hand slipped on the frying pan.

"Only kidding." He chirped and watched her scrambled to get her cooking back on course. "Killing a Wishbringer is a bad idea. It wipes them from existence and if Inuyasha doesn't exist then all the things he's done in the past wouldn't have happened and the world would change."

"Really?" Kagome added a dash more oil to the vegetables frying in the pan. "In what way?"

"Well… in some ways I suppose it would be wonderful." Shippo sighed. "A lot of the mess and havoc he's wreaked would be mended – because it wouldn't have occurred. But also he did a few things that didn't just affect individual people's lives, but the entire country – even the world. The three eleventh generations he created wouldn't exist, so that'll be three more Wishbringers and their deeds down the plug-hole of existence."

"What… you mean that whole thing with Oda Nobunaga?" she guessed.

"That changed the country. Erasing that would make a mess of today. But that wasn't one of the big things he did." Shippo picked at the table cloth as he watched her activities with a degree of hunger. "In the seventeenth century he was master to this rich guy who lived in Kyoto. While serving the rich guy he saved the life of a little girl on the street who was about to be trampled by a horse. If he hadn't intervened she would have died. But because he intervened she grew up and got married to a doctor, and together they fathered a boy who then later moved Prussia. The boy made friends with some people, became successful and bought a ferry ticket for one of his friends to go to England for a business trip. His friend arrived there in 1665, and travelled by carriage to go to his medical convention and because the guy was a little clumsy he dropped his bags off the side. When he jumped off to get them he jumped right into the path of another horse and cart who veered off to avoid him. The cart fell over and-"

"Does this have a point or is this just old man rambling stuff?" Kagome asked.

"I was getting to the good part!" Shippo snapped. "Anyway, like I said the cart hit the ground and shook it – it was a big cart, see. And a few metres away in this orchard the ground shook hard enough for an apple to fall from one of the trees and hit this bloke on the head. And then that bloke got a brainy idea and created this theory of gravity-"

"So you're saying that if Inuyasha died then Sir Isaac Newton wouldn't have invented gravity?!" Kagome burst out.

"One; the guy didn't invent anything, he just found a theory to explain something that was already there. And two; that theory was a load of bull, I should know, because I know everything."

Kagome stared at him a moment before shaking herself mentally and physically and moving back to the frying pan before the food burnt. "Well… at least killing him is out of the question. You have no idea how worried we were that you were coming to execute him."

"I have every idea – and I don't like butter on my vegetables!" he quickly broke in as he saw her move towards the tub. "I like margarine."

"We don't have any margarine." She said apologetically.

"I know. I just don't want any butter in that case." He said.

Kagome shrugged and put the butter knife down before picking up the bowl of vegetables and setting them down before the ravenous boy. "So if you aren't going to kill him, what are you going to do with him?"

"Oh, I'm going to set him free and let him live the rest of his natural life in blissful freedom." Shippo said lightly.

"Really?" Kagome's hopes soared.

He snorted. "No. Who do you think I am? I need to punish him, not reward him."

She sunk miserably into another seat at the kitchen table. "That's not very nice, you know. Getting my hopes up like that…"

"If you're so keen on getting him free then why don't you ask me how?" he said around a mouthful of greens. "I can answer any question you have, but only once. I won't be able to fib or tell a porky, you can trust that much."

"Ask you… how to set him free?" Kagome echoed quietly, staring at him.

"Yep. I know just about anything there is to know about everything you didn't need to know." Shippo told her. "So, ask away lass."

Kagome shifted slightly in her seat, leaning closer. "You mean it?"

"Mm hm." He nodded as he chewed.

"Can I ask now?"

He rolled his eyes. "Mm hm."

"Then… please tell me how to set Inuyasha free?" she requested, pleadingly silently it was within her power to be able to do what he told her.

For a moment Shippo stopped chewing, a flicker of annoyance passed over his young face but it was gone within a moment. "There is no way."

"What?!" Kagome slapped her hands against the table. "You made it sound like there was!"

"The one Wishbringer rule which can't be broken or bent with a loophole is the rule which guarantees a Wishbringers life. Inuyasha is bound to be a Wishbringer for the rest of his life – which is for eternity! Nothing you can do or wish for will set him free. Nothing anyone else can do will let him break the bonds to his new life. You can't get another Wishbringer to set him free. I knew that when you heard I was coming you were hoping that you could use my one 'wish' to set him free."

Kagome stared glumly at the table.

"Not happening." He said bluntly. "The only way to free a Wishbringer is to kill it. And killing someone is not freeing them, that's just killing them. And I doubt you'd be able to live with yourself if you killed him."

Kagome sighed loudly. "You want seconds."

"Oh yes please. Thank you." He beamed as she took his empty bowl back to refill it. 

So there really was no way to free him… she'd hoped that there might be a chance… but no. She fought back her tears as she spooned up more food for the First.

"If you love him…" Shippo said in such a casual way that she forgot to flinch at his assumption. "Then if I were you I would make that last wish quickly. The sooner he's out of your life the sooner you forget him and the sooner you are over the heartache."

Her hands slowed… and she paused a moment before turning back to him, a smile on her face, and set down the bowl before him again. "If I didn't know any better I'd say that you were feeling sorry for me and Inuyasha."

He snorted again in a childish way that completely belied his true age. "Sorry for you and Inuyasha? Sorry for you perhaps. After all, I don't like seeing good cooks get hurt."

She smiled and patted him on the head. "You're a sweetheart, Shippo."

He grinned and went on eating.

~*~

"I can't take this anymore. I think I may actually go insane." Inuyasha groaned loudly as he covered his face with his hands. "How can the First be a kid anyway?! I mean… is he some kind of shape shifter and he's just appeared to us as a brat to make us go easy on him?"

"I don't think so." Miroku pondered. "If he truly is some kind of oracle then I doubt that he has the ability to shift his shape."

Sango looked up from where she sat on an old tyre cleaning her oily hands on a rag. "You said yourself Miroku that the First's life span stretches for the length of time itself… so it stands to reason that he's still in his childhood stage. Time isn't that old." She tilted her head. "Right?"

"And you listen to the bull that comes out of his mouth?" Inuyasha asked her tightly from his snoopy position on the oil tank.

Sango fixed him with a dry look. "Hey, Inuyasha? How far have you got with Kagome?"

He flinched, but was ready with his comeback. "Hey, Sango? How far have you got with the car?"

Touchy subjects for both of them. Sango huffed and picked herself up to go back to the garage and back to work. Miroku watched her walking away for a moment before his hand unconsciously raised to strike his own cheek, he quickly realised and caught it with the other hand before it could do any damage. When he noticed Inuyasha staring at him he laughed and waved. "I'm getting better at this. In no time my thoughts should be as pure as the Buddha's himself."

"Right, you slapping yourself is spiritual cleansing and the First coming here is just for a nice cup of tea and a chat." Inuyasha rolled his head back to gaze towards the heavens.

Miroku sighed as he approached the Hanyou warily. "What's the matter? With the way you're talking it sounds like you _want _to be punished."

"Of course I don't want to be punished!" Inuyasha snapped back at him.

"I know. You're just can't stand the fact that your fate lies in the balance… in the small palms of a child who obviously has taken a total dislike of you, right from the start." Miroku shrugged one shoulder. "I understand."

"Don't understand me. I hate people understanding me." Inuyasha grumbled as he pushed himself upright and prepared to jump down. "I just don't like being kept waiting, that's all!"

Miroku was looking towards the house. "Looks like the wait is over."

Inuyasha followed his gaze and spotted Kagome standing just at the corner of the house. She looked unhappy and tired. Making a half-hearted beckoning gesture she called to them. "He says he wants to talk to you."

Inuyasha glanced momentarily at Miroku who looked as calm and un-moveable as usual, even in the most tense of situations. With a roll of his eyes at his sire's typical behaviour he dropped down to the ground and followed Kagome. She waited for them to reach her before leading them off back into the house.

The First was waiting upstairs in Kagome's bedroom. When they walked in he was bouncing on the bed.

"You do realise your bed has a few springs missing, right?" Shippo panted as he stopped.

"Yes." She answered.

"Well it has a few less now." Shippo glanced at the two Wishbringers behind her. He narrowed his eyes quizzically as his gaze lingered on Miroku. "You. You were the one who sired Inuyasha, right?"

Miroku glanced at Inuyasha, the floor, the underwear drawer in the dresser, then back at the First. "Yes, I am."

"That's a crime in itself, really." Shippo said contemptuously before shaking his head quickly. "But then again, it was his wish and you can't refuse a wish so I can't exactly blame you for all that's happened."

Well at least Miroku could breathe easier. However, Inuyasha's chest constricted a little when the squirt darted a glare at him instead. "But _you _on the other hand… I can't exactly hold you accountable for creating that abomination that called itself Naraku – that was also Onigumo's wish and like I said you can't deny a wish."

"But what about all the rules I broke?" Inuyasha asked flatly. He saw Kagome watching him out of the corner of his eye, he wanted to look at her and see her expression… but something made him keep his eyes on Shippo only.

"Oh yeah." Shippo scowled and jabbed a finger at him. "Do you know how annoying it is when people break rules? When Wishbringers break rules they're supposed to die – when they use powers outside of wishes then they're supposed to die as well! But you had to be stubborn and survive it – and as a result you've been sapping at my own power reserves you little leech!"

Inuyasha's eyebrows drew together. "I'm sorry?" he offered lamely.

"That won't cut it. Because once a rule-breaker, always a rule breaker." Shippo reprimanded him. Honestly, Inuyasha wasn't really intimidated by his small frame and small voice… but the threat behind those words had him on edge. "There's only one way I can deal with your kind… I have to remove you from this world."

That was ok. Inuyasha could handle that. Kagome couldn't apparently.

She surprised them all by suddenly throwing herself out in front of Inuyasha, like some kind of shield. It reminded him of the time she'd tried to protect him against Miroku. "You can't do that! Inuyasha did nothing wrong!"

"He did everything wrong!" Shippo shouted back at her.

"But he saved my life-"

"And inconvenienced the rest of us while at it." Shippo snapped his eyes back on his target. "You, Inuyasha, have been nothing but a nuisance from the start. You always seem to choose the worst masters and then give them the worst wishes. There's no such thing as the curse of a Wishbringer, but in your case I really have to believe that there is definitely something ominous hanging over you head. And before you say it, I know that you don't mean to do these things – I know – trust me!" he said this as Inuyasha opened his mouth to protest. "And I also know that there is only one course of action to stop this."

Everyone stared silently at the boy. Inuyasha couldn't believe this… it just had to be some kind of joke.

Shippo sighed and folded his arms with a slight pout of a child forced to do something nasty like clean his room. "You're going on probation, Inuyasha. Three hundred years probation in fact, effective from midnight tonight."

No one moved or said a word for a while.

Kagome stepped forward slightly. "P-probation? What do you mean? What kind of…?"

"I'm sorry!" Shippo burst out suddenly, angrily defensive. "I can't help it! He's broken too many rules so he has to be shut up for a while!"

"He's going to be confined to his container for three hundred years." Miroku looked slightly pained. "Probation means that… he'll be conscious throughout his sentence as well. He won't be asleep."

"Right, ok." Inuyasha nodded for a moment while everyone stared at him, waiting for the big explosion. They didn't have to wait too long… "**WHAT DO YOU MEAN PROBATION YOU LITTLE TOAD??!!**"

"Hey! Even I have to answer to other peoples rules – I can't let you off you know!" Shippo shouted back. "If I went easy on you then everything would slack off and get messy – I can't allow that so I'm sorry but it's not my fault – you brought this on your own head!"

At this point Inuyasha already had the First by the neck and was throttling him angrily. Miroku had to grab him by the ear to drag them apart. "No homicide under this roof!"

Kagome ran a hand through her hair. "Isn't there anything else you could do to punish Inuyasha?" she asked quietly.

"What, like kill him?" Shippo croaked, rubbing his sore neck and eyeing a spitting mad Hanyou being held back by Miroku.

"No!" she half cried. "Can't you go easier on him – three hundred years alone is enough to make anyone go insane!"

"As if he isn't already a crackpot!" Shippo folded his arms in a huff. "This is the most lenient I can be. I could make it so much worse…"

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes slightly, but he calmed down after that. Kagome still fretted. "Won't you change your mind?" she pleaded with the boy.

Shippo shrugged. "It's already set. He has until midnight and then no one will ever be able to summon him for wishes… for a long time." He looked at Kagome. "If I were you, I'd use that last wish now while you have a chance."

Kagome looked down at the ground for a moment, staring hard, and when she raised her head again Inuyasha could see the tears brimming in her eyes. Without a word she turned and fled out of the room, her footsteps growing fainter as she disappeared down the stairs. With a growl, Inuyasha tore himself free of Miroku's grip and grabbed Shippo by the scruff. "You're scum!" he hissed one last time before dropping him and following after Kagome.

Left alone, Miroku sighed as he looked the First over. "That was pretty mean you know."

"Too many people think life's as simple as black and white." Shippo rubbed his rumpled hair. "Only seven percent of people have the fairy tale ending to their lives that they wanted."

"Really?" Miroku raised an eyebrow.

"Sure. It's a factual statistic." Shippo sighed. "Forty percent end up miserable…"

AN: The next chapter will be out shortly, I've almost finished writing it.


	26. Note to Self

****

Author's Notes: Get the tissues people!

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 26

Note to Self…

"Kagome?!"

She ignored his voice. She wanted to shut him and everyone else out and pretend that everything was fine. Normally she was good at facing her problems… but now it seemed a little too much.

"Kagome?! Where are you?"

The one place he wouldn't look for her. In the attic. She'd scrambled up the ladder as fast as she could and had shut the trap door behind her. There was so much turmoil within her that she couldn't even think about dealing with any turmoil on the outside.

"Kagome?!"

"Go away!" she yelled back, before immediately biting her lip. She'd as good as led him straight to her.

A few moments of silence followed. He didn't call her again and she wondered if he hadn't heard her and had gone looking elsewhere, but no sooner had that thought crossed her mind that he appeared before her in the gloomy light of the attic. With a sniff she buried her head into her knees and tried to ignore him… but it was hard when he crouched down before her and tried pulling her arms away from hugging her knees. She resisted him.

"Kagome… don't be like this." He said wearily. "I'm the one being punished here, not you."

She was so close to sobbing she had trouble talking. "You have… six hours left…"

"And I don't want to spend them watching you sulk and cry." He said bluntly.

Angrily she pushed him away from her, getting some satisfaction when he fell back onto his behind. "Just leave me alone!" she shook with a few silent sobs as she put her head in her arms again.

"You don't mean that!"

"I do!" Of course, she didn't really. "I mean… this isn't fair! Why do you have to go like this?! It's cruel!"

"To who? Me or you?" he pushed himself up, frowning at her.

"Both." She took a deep shuddering breath to try and calm herself. "I'm sorry… it's just that, I knew this kind of thing would happen eventually and I didn't like to think about it… so now that it's happening, now that you're leaving soon, I don't know how to deal with it." She lifted her head to see him looking down at the floor between them. She sniffed again and dashed a hand across her eyes. "You've just been this… _huge _part of my life now, I don't know how I'm supposed to let you go so easily…"

"It can't be helped." He shrugged limply. He was still staring at the floor. 

Kagome frowned slightly as she watched his rather blank and emotionless face. "Doesn't this affect you at all? Aren't you sad?"

"Sure." He flicked a small glance up to her. "You're a pretty big part of my life too."

She swallowed hard. "I meant… aren't you sad you're on probation?"

"Oh yeah. That too." He said quickly. "After all, who wants to be stuck in a perfume bottle for three hundred years and watch every second pass by like a small eternity?"

Kagome stared at him silently as the pregnant pause stretched out between them. He began rapping his claws against the floor in a very annoying manner, but she didn't really care too much. The only light she could see him by was the dirty, small skylight at the other end of the attic. It didn't give great illumination, but it was just enough to make out his profile with a few details. His hair reflected most of the light, glinting a soft white in the dark attic. Since his back was to the window, she couldn't make out much of his shadowed face… his eyes seemed coal black instead of vibrant amber, half hid behind slightly lowered eyelids.

In six hours she'd never set eyes on him again. She'd never talk to him again, which meant that she'd never get the chance to let him know how much he meant to her…

Now or never…

"Inuyasha," she laid her forehead against her knees again. "I know my timing really sucks and all… and I know that it's inappropriate and misplaced, but for what it's worth now, I love you."

There was no noise in the attic other than the pounding of her heart in her ears. He wasn't saying anything… he wasn't even making any move towards her, or away from her. What now?

"I suppose the fact that you're not saying anything is an indication that you think I'm totally out of my mind." She forced cheerfulness. "You're probably right."

She gathered her courage and looked up at him… only to find him staring off listlessly to the side. "Inuyasha?"

"Hm?" he seemed to snap back to reality and glanced at her.

He could rile her temper even at a time like this? "Weren't you listening?!"

"Yeah, I was listening. I was just thinking." He exhaled slowly. "Feelings like yours can't be switched on and off… can they?"

She shook her head with a sigh. "No… they can't."

"Maybe that should be your last wish."

She narrowed her eyes at him, not sure she understand what he meant. "Sorry?"

"Maybe you should use your last wish to get rid of that love." He looked at her sincerely. "I'm sure that would-"

"What?!" she barked at him. "What kind of a suggestion is that?!"

"I'm only trying to be objective and practical!" he yelled back.

"You're coming off as callus and uncaring more like!" Kagome picked up the first object that came to hand – one of the old books she'd pulled out of the boxes when she'd been up there with Souta for the first time. She hurled it at him. "Didn't you hear what I said?! **I L-O-V-E YOU**! Get it?! I don't want to get rid of that just because you feel uncomfortable with it! Personally – I don't give a toss about you – these are _my _feelings! Not yours! Sod off!"

She picked up another book and threw it, he put his arm up to shield himself. "Would you calm down?! I never said it made me uncomfortable – I only meant that if you love me then it's going to hurt you more than it should when I go!"

"That isn't helpful!" she lobbed one last hardback book at him before slumping back against the wooden pillar behind her. "You're a pig…"

He sighed loudly and irritably. "It was only a suggestion."

"Well it wasn't a very good one." She couldn't believe he could act so casual about the fact that she loved him. Wasn't it big news to him? Or had he already known…? "I bet you actually heard me when I told Naraku that I loved you… didn't you?"

"Might have."

"So you knew?"

"Mm." He hummed evasively.

She rolled her eyes. He could have at least let her know… but probably because he didn't return the feelings, he'd kept his mouth shut to avoid any unpleasant confrontations… like this one.

"Are you mad?" he asked quietly.

She shook her head slowly. "Not really… I'm more upset that you'll be leaving by midnight." Her brow wrinkled in thought. "I wish that you could stay here forever."

"I can't grant that." He told her with a hint of weariness.

"I wish that you were mortal like me."

"Kagome!" he said angrily. "You know I can't-"

"I wish, I wish, I _wish _that you didn't have to leave at midnight!" she shouted fiercely back at him. "I wish that Shippo didn't punish you! I wish that you weren't on probation! I wish that I could see you again after tonight! I wish that you could always be with me and that we would always be friends if nothing more!"

He glared at her.

She pulled a face at him and dropped her head back against the wooden beam. "But your powers are too weak to grant anything like that…"

He shifted closer but she ignored him… until he caught her around the shoulders and pulled her into his lap. He practically opened the floodgates and suddenly Kagome was unable to stop crying into his shoulder. For once Inuyasha seemed to know what to do… and he just held her tightly as her body shook and sobbed.

"Why is it so unfair?!" she wailed against his haori, barely intelligble in her hysterics. Though Inuyasha always seemed to have a knack to understand her whatever way she spoke. "Why do you have to leave like this?!"

"Well… look on the bright side." He cajoled. "At least neither of us are going to die."

This only brought louder sobs into his shoulder. "That's not funny! Right now I might as well _be _dead!"

His arms tightened. "You don't mean that." He sighed a moment before continuing. "Maybe you should consider using that last wish. To… forget about me. Completely. At least one of us will be spared from the whole crumbling cookie thing."

Her crying died down slightly and she sniffed as she lifted her chin to look into his face. "Don't be ridiculous. I wouldn't trade my memories of you for anything."

He looked oddly relieved and exasperated at the same time. But… more grateful than anything else. "Thank you…"

She watched his face for a moment before wrapping her arms around his neck and embracing him tightly, taking shuddering breaths to try and calm her uneven emotions. "I'm sorry… I'm taking this out on you and it's not your fault…"

"You're scared." He said quietly against her hair.

It nearly made her cry again, but she valiantly held it together. "Are you scared?"

"Terrified…"

Instinctively she tightened her arms around him and closed her eyes. "I care too much about you, Inuyasha… there has to be a way out of this?"

He buried his head against her shoulder. "There isn't." He sounded defeated, broken… she prayed that he didn't start crying, otherwise she might never be able to stop herself from doing the same for the rest of her life.

When he started to pull back she loosened her arms around his shoulders and sat back slightly in his lap. She was aware of how horribly red and puffy her face probably looked right then, and usually in the presence of Inuyasha she'd be mortified with herself. But compared to the enormity of their situation, a little pink around the eyes really didn't seem that important… Inuyasha didn't seem to care either, not that he looked much better himself. Fortunately he hadn't cried, but he looked miserable enough… she almost felt her heart break. He couldn't even manage a weak smile for her.

"Inuyasha…" she wanted to hold him again, but he didn't let her.

Instead he caught her by surprise when he lifted his hand and brushed the line of her jaw with his fingers, brushing some of the stray strands of hair away from her wet cheeks. Tucking them behind her ears he returned his hand to her cheek, the warmth of his palm sinking into her skin. Moments like this made her wonder if he really did care for her…

"I heard Shippo say something before…" he told her quietly, still no smile was offered. "Only seven percent of people have a happy ending… live their dreams to the full."

Kagome swallowed with a slight sniff. "I guess… we're not in that seven percent."

"They weren't very good odds…" he told her softly. "Forty percent end up miserable, unhappy… and alone."

It seemed as though they had been unfortunate enough to slip into that sector. Kagome's face fell and she clasped a trembling hand over his to keep his warmth against her cheek.

"I may have fallen into that last category but there are at least fifty three percent of people unaccounted for." Inuyasha said suddenly, making her look up with a frown. "You'll be one of those fifty-three."

"How do they end up?"

He shrugged. "In the middle of the road. Satisfied with what they have… but not exactly living their dreams." His brown flicked down in a brief frown as another tear made its way down her cheek. He brushed it off with a slide of his thumb. "You'll be happy. Won't you?"

She wanted to scream at him that she'd never be happy as long as he was trapped in a little bottle for three hundred years. She would live and die while he remained imprisoned in the same state of mind he was now… How could she ever be happy knowing that?

But for his sake she nodded shakily. "I'll try."

He nodded, and finally gave her a small smile. It wasn't a very happy one, but it made her feel as though he was proud of her or something. She wondered why he was proud of her at all… if anything she was a disgrace. He'd known from the start that they wouldn't be able to stay together for as long as she would have liked, and he'd managed to keep a clear head. She on the other hand had ignored it all and had fallen for him like an idiot. Now she was going to pay the price for her stupidity.

"You're my favourite master, Kagome." He said as he enveloped her in another hug.

"You're my favourite Wishbringer, Inuyasha." She replied as she leant into him, letting him hold her this time. "But that may be biased because I love you."

With her head tucked under his chin she wasn't able to read his expression. His arms tightened fractionally around her frame and she chose to take that as a small thank you.

"You're tired." He observed. Kagome realised he was pretty much stating the obvious… crying always made her weak and weary, but she was determined not to give into sleep, not while her time with Inuyasha was so short. As if in contradiction to her plans he said, "You should sleep."

His hand squeezed her shoulder and she slipped straight into a dreamless slumber.

~*~

"Where's Kagome?" Miroku asked as they all looked up upon Inuyasha's arrival into the living room.

"She's in bed." He responded tiredly.

"Did you say goodbye?" Sango asked quietly. Inuyasha made a vague sort of nod and a shrug of his shoulders.

"It's thirty seconds to midnight," Shippo stated without looking at the clock. "Any last words? Now's the time to say something profound and meaningful that none of us will forget."

Inuyasha glanced between them. "What could I possibly say to you three losers that could enlighten your dreary little lives?"

"Inuyasha lacks wise words, Shippo." Miroku told the First shortly.

"Ten seconds." Shippo said quietly, looking at the floor, at the Tv, at anything other than Inuyasha. For a brief moment Inuyasha locked gazes with him and saw what he thought could be a glimmer of desperation. In that fleeting moment it was almost as if Shippo was trying to urge him to say something… to do something.

Something Inuyasha realised would save his life. The perfect answer came to him. 

"Shippo!" he yelled suddenly. "I-!"

"Midnight." Shippo said flatly.

Inuyasha's body flickered and faded. A new silence descended on the room.

"He's gone." Miroku broke it eventually with a quiet voice.

~*~

"You really don't want us hanging around, do you?" Sango said lightly as she hauled her duffel bag over her shoulder. "I really think you should reconsider."

Kagome gave the pair a smile "It's ok, I can manage on my own."

Miroku put a hand up to shade his eyes from the intense sunlight. "Are you sure? Your family isn't due back for another three days."

"I know." She waved off his concern.

Sango and Miroku traded anxious looks, but between them seemed to decide that there was no convincing the girl. With a sigh Miroku turned and started towards the awaiting taxi in the drive, as he passed Sango his hand outstretched… only to take the bag from her shoulder and carry it to the vehicle.

"Your Wishbringer seems to be more obedient now." Kagome told Sango with a small grin. "Told ya so."

"Mm." Sango smiled slightly, still watching the younger girl with concern. "Are you sure you don't want someone around… you're gonna be here all on your own for three days. What if something happens and no one's around to help you?"

Kagome heaved a sigh. "I told you, it's ok. This is the middle of no where, nothing ever happens around here… other than a few incidents involving magical beings, but that's over now, right? Mom left me money, I can go walk into town and get food if I need it. I'll be fine."

Sango still seemed uncertain. "Alright… just be careful, ok?"

Kagome nodded with a bright smile.

"Shippo!" Sango yelled.

"Coming!" Answered the kid from somewhere within the house. After a few moments he came toddling out with the bag that he's arrived with. "I don't know what the hurry is," he said as he passed Kagome on the porch. "My plane is going to be two hours late, we don't need to rush there or anything."

It got a tad annoying how he could predict these kind of things… they half believed that he made most of the stuff up just to be a nuisance. Whoever said that the First had to be a hundred percent honest all the time?

"Come on." Sango gestured for him to go to the taxi.

Shippo started for it, before slowing down, stopping, then turning back to Kagome reproachfully. "Um… sorry and all… about Inuyasha."

"It's ok." Kagome shrugged easily.

"Just remember what I said." He called as he headed for the taxi again. "Make sure you don't smash that bottle – if you do, he's as good as dead."

Kagome nodded slowly. "I know, you told me! I'll go out and buy a box with a lock later and put the container in it… hopefully that should hold for three hundred years… right?"

Shippo gave a shrug as he stopped at the door. "If it breaks, he won't be able to fix himself a new container."

Miroku's hand reached out and clipped him over the head. "Stop it, you're going to scare her." He hissed.

"You shouldn't strike the First, Ninth!" Shippo hissed back as he clambered in.

Sango shook her head with a sigh as she glanced back at Kagome. "Well… in any case, tell your Grandfather that the car was impossible. I doubt it was a car to begin with… so he can keep his money."

"I'll tell him." Kagome said softly.

Sango opened her mouth to ask if she was ok… but quickly closed it as she changed her mind. Not that Kagome would answer her truthfully anyway. "It was nice knowing you, Kagome."

"You too, Sango."

With a short wave Sango turned and headed for the Taxi without looking back. She shut the door after her and gave directions to the driver. "Narita airport."

The taxi moved off out of the drive, everyone watching the road like a bunch of hawks, except for Shippo who was stood on the back seat staring out the back window. "She's crying again."

Miroku sighed imperceptibly. "That happens when your heart breaks."

Shippo growled angrily as he sat back down. "What a jerk, he didn't even let her say goodbye properly. He just popped her lights out and put her to bed. He didn't even give her the chance to use her last wish. She can't use it now, can she? Useless…"

Miroku ignored him as he watched the scenery flick by outside. "Inuyasha has never been good at goodbyes. He prefers not to make big scenes."

"And I expect Kagome chose to forfeit that last wish on her own accord." Sango added. "She's not exactly hung up on using all her wishes either."

"She's not greedy." Miroku nodded.

"Mm." Sango hummed noncommittally.

Shippo make an angry moaning sound. "God… you're all a bunch of idiots!" he snapped suddenly, making the other two occupants in the back of the taxi look down at him un surprise. "If one of you would just ask-"

He broke off suddenly, pressing his lips together and grumbled something unintelligible under his breath. Miroku flicked a glance at Sango, before leaning down closer to Shippo. "What did you say?"

The boy twitched. "Nothing. I said nothing." He replied sullenly.

"You said one of us could ask…" he pressed. "Ask what? What can we ask?"

"You don't want to ask that question." Shippo warned him. "You're only allowed one question and you don't want to blow it."

"Then what do you want us to ask?" Sango frowned.

Shippo sighed loudly. "That's exactly the same question, rephrased. And trust me, you don't want to blow your one shot chance either."

They both stared at him a moment before shrugging and turning their attention back out of the window. Shippo bristled in annoyance. He sat there in stony silence for almost a good twenty minutes before finally bursting out. "Have you ever heard the phrase 'Ask and you shall receive'?!"

"What's the got to do with anything?" Sango shot back. "You're not making any sense."

Shippo sank back down into his seat, holding his head in his hands and muttering something else under his breath. But while Sango stared cluelessly at him, Miroku was looking out the window thoughtfully. "Ask and you shall receive… huh?"

~*~

Food… she needed food. And she needed to find a safe box to put Inuyasha's bottle in. She needed to call Hojo and find out when the results for her high school entrance exams came back. She couldn't even remember if she'd taken them.

"Aspirin… I need aspirin." Kagome pushed the tears away from her eyes with a shaking hand.

She was going to pieces and she could already feel a headache coming on, it happened when she cried too much. Her eyes felt entirely too hot and her throat was sore. Perhaps she was coming down with a cold? In which case she needed aspirin… oh wait, she'd already decided on that already.

It was only then that Kagome realised she'd been holding the phone, listlessly staring at the little sheet of numbers pinned up on the wall beside it. What was she doing holding the phone? Her focus snapped straight back into order and she zoned in on Hojo's number, remembering that she'd been about to call him to ask… to ask… to ask what?

Results. With a frustrated gasp she set the phone back in its cradle and stood with her eyes closed, trying to collect her scattered mind. She felt like she was in pieces… she felt like she'd left her brain behind when she'd gotten out of bed that morning… when she'd realised that Inuyasha had cheated her and left without offering her a warning.

"Damn you…" she whispered bitterly. "Damn you, damn you, _damn you_…"

Cursing him wasn't going to help matters, and she slowly opened her eyes to glance over at the kitchen table. In the middle, amongst a bunch of bandannas and a couple of apples, lay the teeny, tiny perfume bottle that now contained Inuyasha… imprisoned in there for a sentence of three centuries.

She slipped over to the table, half wondering if he was aware of her… wondering if she was going to crack and go insane. She picked out the little glass tube carefully between her thumb and forefinger and held it up to the light. It looked empty, full of nothing but air, though she had half expected to see a miniature Inuyasha rolling around inside.

"You didn't even let me say goodbye, you jerk." She felt her eyes glazing over again and quickly blinked back the tears. Her fingers squeezed the bottle angrily. "You jerk… you complete coward…"

Her mind drifted and she stood for a long time, just staring at the little tube in her hand… wondering…

It was when she swayed dangerously, that Kagome once again realised where she was and who she was, what she was holding. Shaking her head at her foolishness for spacing out at regular intervals, she clasped the little tube in her fist and went to go find her coat. She needed to go for a walk to clear her head, and possibly to go to the shops a couple of miles down the road and get some milk and… and something else she'd try and remember when she arrived there.

It took her ten minutes of searching to find her coat – and foolishly it was in the cloakroom where she'd left it. Now why hadn't she looked there first? "Stupid girl…" she muttered as she dragged on the coat and walked out the front door, forgetting to lock it behind her.

No matter how much of a pleasant day it was, she decided not to walk all the way to the shops. Instead she wheeled out her old bike from the garage and walked it down the drive. Before hopping on she stuffed the little bottle into her coat pocket, absent-mindedly wiping her tears again and noting that she'd left her CD player in the basket of the bike. It probably had dead batteries by now…

Dead… as good as Inuyasha was to her now…

Time skipped a beat again and Kagome forced herself to keep her mind on getting to the shops and back. If she spaced out anymore then she might just turn into a cabbage.

"You're probably laughing your head off at me, right now." She muttered to Inuyasha… she'd chosen to believe that he could hear her. If he couldn't? Well, then no one would know that she was talking to herself… besides, it kept the hope alive inside her that he was still there, right beside her.

Sighing, she swung her leg over the bike and peddled off at a leisurely pace.

It was very quiet on the road. Trees to the left, trees to the right… trees ahead and behind… lots of birds with pretty voices, singing about such a beautiful morning. Kagome steered with one hand as she felt for the CD player in the basket, for some reason she'd rather listen to music than bird song. She needed something to take her mind off… off everything really.

Jamming the little ear pieces into her ears, she punched the on button of the player and waited to see what would happen. Surprisingly, the CD began spinning and the intro of the first song began. Well, who knew? Maybe Sango had been using it and had replaced the batteries?

It helped a little, riding with a semi-cool breeze on her face, drying her tears and filling her lungs with new clean air. She inhaled deeply, letting some of her mind be lulled into relaxation. The music didn't really occupy her mind… it was just some background noise as she rode. She didn't really listen to it…

The front wheel hit a rock in the road and the bike, plus herself, keeled straight over.

Kagome bumped her head hard on the ground and grimaced as the pain shot through her skull. Her legs tangled with the bike and the gear chains scraped her bare legs. Red welts ran down from her knees to her calves. She lifted her head to survey the damage a moment before a surge of alarm grabbed her.

With a gasp she scrambled for the bottle in her pocket, praying with all her heart that it was still in one piece. Relief flooded her when she brought it out whole and unharmed.

"Nearly…" she whispered to the little piece of glass and held it over her racing heart. "This is why I'll have to lock you in a box and keep you safe…" no matter how much she wanted to carry him around for the rest of her life, talking to him, pretending that he could hear.

Kagome was having serious doubts about her mental health…

As her heart calmed down she lay on her back, catching her breath… staring up at an endless blue sky… squinting mostly because it hurt her eyes. After a moment she just shut them and let herself drift.

Somewhere close-by the CD player still played on, its tinny music was loud enough to be heard clearly through the small earphones. In the distance an aeroplane rumbled through the sky, but was too far away to see or really care about. Maybe it was Shippo's plane?

Some small creature rustled in the bushes nearby, probably a rabbit or a stoat or something. The birds still tittered and sang, Kagome couldn't help but feel they were talking about her among themselves. Paranoid…

The wheel on her bike finally stopped spinning and she let her head fall to the side, listening to the words being sung through the earphones. She remembered that song… an old one that her mother had liked a lot. It was basically about a girl finding love, then losing it in the space of seven days. The guy in the song had been an asshole and walked off…

Her mother refused to listen to that song again when their father had left. Kagome had disliked it as well, it only reminded her of a faithless husband that she had once lovingly called 'dad'.

But now the perspective changed and she found herself thinking of Inuyasha.

"You know when you're in love," she remembered her friend, Ayumi, telling her once, "All the songs on the radio are suddenly about _him_…"

At which point Ayumi had sighed dreamily and fluttered off to go chase the boy that she fancied. Kagome hadn't believed a word of what she'd said then… but now she found it to be completely true.

From now on, she had no doubt that every little thing would probably remind her of Inuyasha.

The song ended and started on another. Ah. The Hamster song…

Kagome just couldn't find a way to associate that with Inuyasha without grasping at some serious straw.

Flinging her free hand out, she smacked the player, sending it scuttling halfway across the road, losing its batteries and its CD in the process. No more songs would be coming from that thing today…

Why hadn't he said anything? Why had he let her fall asleep in the attic and miss her vital last six hours with him? Had he despised her that much? Had he gotten so upset by her confession of love that he had wanted to get away from her as fast as possible? Was it her fault?

She was just too confused… she didn't understand what she was supposed to be feeling now. Sad? Angry? She felt incomplete and unsatisfied with him… which was probably worse than sadness or anger. But most of all she didn't understand what he was feeling. Did it matter, though? It wasn't like she'd ever see him again…

Kagome lifted her head and peered down the road. A car might come along soon and what would the driver think to a girl moping around in the middle of the road with a bike wrapped around her legs?

Carefully, she slipped the bottle back into her other pocket… and felt her fingers close around something else in those material depths. With a frown she fished it out and held it up above her nose. A piece of folded up paper…

Unrolling it, she gazed at it for a moment, dumbly, processing what it was. It clicked in an instant and she grabbed the paper in both hands with a sharp intake of breath, nearly ripping it in half.

Sitting up quickly, she jerked her legs free of the bike and kicked it away from her.

It was a goodbye note…

__

Dear Kagome, 

If you are reading this it means I am either dead, asleep, or in the bathroom taking a pee and you've just rummaged through your pockets – in which case I advise you to put this back or face my wrath. Or you could be Mrs H. doing the laundry, and if so – PUT THE NOTE DOWN!

Well, if I am dead or gone or whatever, then knowing you you're probably blaming yourself about what happened right this minute. Don't bother. You're wasting your time on self-pity. I know how much you wanted to believe I could be set free, and I know that you tried your hardest to help, but I'm beyond all that, so don't go beating yourself up about it. It wasn't your fault.

Seeing as how I chose this life, I am prepared to live with the consequences of my actions. I guess this was all a little new to you so you thought you could change it… but… well, you can't. What a shame. Anyway, this curse is mine, not yours so don't try shouldering the blame.

And if you're not blaming yourself then you can disregard all the above crap.

So I'm expecting you to take proper care of yourself now, since I won't be around to help you out of all the mini disasters that like following me around. Tell Miroku to piss off as soon as possible, I don't want him hanging around after me.

I sorta feel like I'm writing a suicide note here…

In any case, I'm writing this as a goodbye. I like it better this way since I won't be there to see you read this, and you won't be able to interrupt be and moan about me messing around with you. And I guess writing is easier because the words will be there for good, won't they? You can reread them whenever you want, not that you'd want to.

And anyway, since I'm gone and I won't have to see your face again, then I can tell you now, without worrying about repercussions, that I love you. I think I probably always did… well, at least from that time when you put your arms around me when you were deaf and mute. But remember that cookie thing? Well… I don't want to tell you otherwise you'd either laugh or we'd get attached and then blah, blah… etc. etc.

Beside, I doubt you feel the same, not with all the horrible things I've put you through over the last few months.

Well, now that you know how I feel you're either laughing and smashing my bottle with a mallet.

That's all I wanted to say really… just goodbye, but I seem to have written you a book. I hope you appreciate this, girl, it's difficult getting these kinds of thoughts out of your head and onto paper in some sort of intelligible form…

So to summarise, goodbye, don't blame yourself, thanks and I'll probably never forget you unless I hit my head and get amnesia. You'll probably never realise how much you changed my outlook on life, so thanks again.

That's all.

Wait, whatever you do, don't marry either Miroku, Hojo, or that ugly boy at your school. I don't like them. But if you want you can get married and live a normal life (unless you did something really odd with that last wish).

So grow up, grow old and moody (moodier). Marry a man who loves you at least as half as much as I do, or more. Have daughters – boys are just trouble and don't be stupid and name any of them after me. Maybe I'll see them one day?

Keep smiling and I *wish* you luck on that you might be able to move back into your shrine one day.

That's all I can think of to say

__

An: Well, the next chapter could very well be the last chapter… depends on if I want to add an epilogue. So two chapters left at most… I'm really sad it's ending soon, though…


	27. Sensory Depravation

****

Author's Notes: Ok, I've decided to do a little extra epilogue (which will be long enough to be considered a chapter in itself), and that should be out sooner than this update (sorry about the wait!).

So close to the end T_T (But this is a nice long chapter to sink your teeth into)

****

Bottled Genius

Chapter 27

Sensory Depravation

Kagome didn't know how long she sat there staring at the scribbled note in her hand, turning it over in her hands, examining it from every angle possible. On the back there were a few doodled smiley faces with dog ears as well as a few fuzzy balls that could have been cats.

"Why would you…" She started absently as she slipped the bottle out of her pocket and peered at it with confusion. "I don't understand…"

If he'd loved her, why wait until after he'd gone to tell her? Why say goodbye in a note when you could say goodbye face to face? Running a light finger over the bottle she sighed deeply and clutched it close to her heart. "I love you too… but that doesn't mean I'll forgive you for this." Maybe in ten years she'd let him off…

She carefully folded the note and put it back into her pocket, wondering if she was sad enough to frame it and put it on the wall. Possibly…

Looking up the road behind her she pulled a face… it was all uphill from that point to get to the shops, and now that her bike had a wonky wheel, she'd have to walk it all the way.

"Not today…" she muttered as she plopped back down on the road, flat on her back, staring at the sky that seemed to stretch on endlessly above her. If a car came along now she would refuse to move and either get run-over or get a lift back to the old house… both were ok with her.

But no matter how long she stared into the deep, calming blue sky and listened to the lull of the bird song, she couldn't shake one horrible, daunting question from her mind.

Now what?

Was this really how it was supposed to end?

~*~

"Go on… ask a question…" Shippo said tightly as he clenched his fingers against the seat. "_Any _question at all… ask it."

Sango ran a hand over her eyes. "He's making less sense than ever…"

"You want me to ask you a specific question, don't you?" Miroku frowned at the boy. "So just tell me what you want me to ask."

"I can't tell you!" Shippo burst out. "Sure I can tell you to ask a question you're already thinking of, but I can't implant the idea into your head – you have to do that yourself! And you're so moronically slow! Are you retarded or something?!"

Miroku blew out another sigh and turned to look out the window, thinking hard. It was at the tip of his mind…

"Does it have something to do with Inuyasha?" Sango asked Shippo.

"Now _that _you already know the answer to." Shippo folded his arms. "Come on people, it isn't hard…"

Sango rolled her eyes at him. "You know, for some all-powerful being you don't seem that powerful, just very smarmy."

Shippo turned pleadingly hopeful eyes on her. "Go on!"

"All you do is answer questions and that seems to be the only thing you can do." She frowned. "Which begs the question, how the hell did you turn people into Wishbringers when all you can do is give them answers? You'd have to be able to grant them wishes or something like that… but you said that you can only answer questions-"

Shippo grabbed Miroku's sleeve. "You hear that – she's got it! She's got it!"

Miroku's eyes widened as he stared at the clueless Sango. "As in… ask and you shall receive?" He processed this for a moment before leaning forward quickly to the cab driver. "Hey, turn us around – we're going back."

"But I can see the airport from here-" the driver began.

"Yeah, but we're going back." Shippo chirped.

"Alright," the driver muttered as he did a U-turn in the middle of the busy main road, causing Shippo and Miroku to squash Sango to the door. "But you're gonna have to pay double for this…"

~*~

Being imprisoned in a bottle was like sitting in space. Not even that… it was like drifting in nothing at all. He had no ears to hear with, no eyes to see anything, no senses whatsoever to read his surroundings. All he was aware of were his thoughts… how empty it seemed around him, and at the same time how claustrophobic he felt. He had nothing to accompany him other than his consciousness.

Had it always been this way? Every time he went to sleep in his bottle was he drifting mindlessly in a sea of… of what? Of nothing? He'd never been aware of it before, never really cared, but now he was painfully alert to how isolated it felt.

Three hundred years…

The seconds were ticking by one… by one… he could almost hear the ticking of a clock in the back of his mind. He was already bored out of his skull… he had no idea how long he'd been trapped for, but it already seemed a short eternity. He needed a wrist watch… yeah… that would be useful round about now.

Most of all he needed another voice to talk to.

If he'd had his body he would probably have curled up into a ball and cried. But the mind didn't cry, it just despaired, and without the ability to cry with real eyes there was nothing to distract him from the painful loneliness that weighed down on him.

There was absolutely nothing here…

He was already seriously considering suicide. But how was he supposed to kill himself when he had no body?

Was this how Onigumo felt right then? Onigumo was left to live for eternity, deep inside some stinking mountain with no proper physical body to move… just his conscious trapped down in a dark hole for eternity.

It sounded like real hell. Inuyasha felt like he was getting a taste of his own medicine.

__

This is worse than death.

This as good as made up for all the bad things he'd ever done in his entire life. From that time when he strategically squashed the ants in that ant nest when he was seven years old to the time when he'd hit an old crippled man. From when he'd laughed at Kagome's muteness, to that other time when he'd 'accidentally' pushed one of his former mistresses off a cliff into the sea… but only because he was allowed to do so once masters decided to make a sex slave out of him.

God… he was such a jerk… maybe he deserved all this. All he knew was that if he had to endure this for another three hundred years, he wouldn't be coming out of this bottle alive. He'd be a brain-dead cabbage.

It was while he was thinking of the talking cabbage from that kid's show he'd been watching the other day with Souta, that the pain kicked in. Excruciating and agonising. 

He thought he was dying.

~*~

Kagome had decided not to salvage the bike. It was old and rusty and with a bent wheel and handle-bars, she was not going to be able to ride it back to the house, let alone carry it back.

She did, however, piece together the CD player and slipped it into the opposite pocket to the bottle… she didn't want to risk the lumpy player crushing the precious little glass tube.

Home seemed to be a million miles away right then, but she walked on mechanically, keeping her eyes fixed towards the horizon, watching for the house to come back into view.

Vaguely she wondered how she was going to tell her family about what had happened to Inuyasha. She already knew she would probably lie and say that Inuyasha had finally moved away from Izu like he'd always been threatening to do, going to a different foster home or whatever. Perhaps she'd try and be even more convincing by telling them he promised to be back by his eighteenth birthday, or by the time he emancipated himself.

Even though she knew that he wouldn't.

She worked out the story, filled in the little details and the plot holes that might pop up. She found a convincing lie… but at the same time entertained the idea of telling them the truth.

"Inuyasha wasn't human," she would say to the family gathered around the kitchen table. Maybe even Hojo would be sitting there with them. "He was actually a Wishbringer – what you ignorant people would call a Genie. He granted me ten wishes and now that I've used them up, he's gone back into his bottle." At which point she'd hold up the perfume tube and let them wonder how on earth such a large person like Inuyasha could fit into an iddy-biddy bottle.

Of course that would be the sugar-coated, white lie version. If she really wanted to be honest with them she'd tell them everything. She's tell them about Kikyo, how Inuyasha killed both her and her father. How Inuyasha was responsible for getting her expelled from school. How Inuyasha was the one who had stolen her voice and her hearing. How it was Inuyasha's former master who had turned himself into Naraku who had then pushed their car over the cliff and nearly killed all of them together – and had _succeeded _in killing Kagome.

Then she'd tell them of all the rules Inuyasha broke, and how much trouble it got him into. She'd tell them about how Naraku had always been there, ready to kill that at any given moment and they'd never known or had a clue that they'd been in danger.

She'd tell them about the First, the little boy who was older than humanity itself, how he'd come and punished Inuyasha… and that was the reason he was now stuck in his bottle for three hundred years, not because she'd used up her wishes.

At which point her family would cart her off to therapy, wondering if she'd hit her head while they'd been away.

With a shake of her head, Kagome decided that perhaps a little white lie was better. Just tell them that Inuyasha wasn't going to be around anymore.

They would probably be just as upset as Kagome at his disappearance.

A heavy, burdened sigh escaped her chest and she turned her eyes to the ground as she continued walking. Someone up there really didn't like her and Inuyasha. Was it too much to _ask _for something to go right for once?

The echo of a car engine reached her ears and she slowed a little to twist a look over her shoulder. A car was speeding towards her down the road, moving at a dangerous speed and swerving in a dangerous way. Despite already walking on the roadside, Kagome backed further out of the way, halfway up the embankment of the road.

She had hoped that car would just shoot past… but she also just _knew _that life wasn't going to make it easy for her. So she wasn't completely surprised when it screeched to a halt next to where she stood.

The window wound down and Kagome found herself faced with seven youths… seven boys actually from the local school that she'd attended a short while ago.

"Want a lift, babe?"

Kagome did want a lift actually. But she'd rather hitchhike with a farmer and a trailer full of horse manure than get in that car with seven idiots that she knew were too young to even drive. She decided not to patronise them, not when she didn't have Inuyasha on hand to beat them up for her. "No thanks, I'm fine walking." She turned to start off again, but the boys only crept the car along after her, keeping up.

"Are you sure? Where about do you live, babe?" the guy hanging out the window asked with a leer.

As if Kagome was stupid enough to tell them. "I live in Itsukaichi." She told them. "I'm sure it's out of your way. And my name isn't 'babe' it's Kagome."

That had them all sucking in a breath. She glanced over at them and found she could practically see the cogs turning in their head as they wondered, 'Kagome… Kagome… where have we heard that name before?'

It was one of the guys in the back that realised first. "Holy crap – she's the WWF champion who beat up a hundred of the kids in the martial arts club at school!"

Her reputation seemed to have inflated with her absence.

Either way it saved her a lot of hassle when the boy who was at the wheel stamped down on the accelerator and the car shot off faster than it had arrived. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief and silently found herself thanking Inuyasha for getting her that reputation… perhaps it would have been more difficult to have shaken them off if he hadn't.

~*~

That evening, the night seemed oddly quiet. Kagome stared into the flickering tongues of the heart fire, watching the few lumps of coal and logs of wood burn and glow a deep red.

She remembered the day Inuyasha had chopped that wood…

It was all she seemed capable of today. She was stuck in her mind, remembering all the good and bad times she'd experienced with Inuyasha. The world around her might as well not have been there for the attention she paid to it.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts she decided she needed to stop thinking about him, if only for a little while. All these memories were going to make her depressed in no time. She switched on the Telly and picked up the book that she'd been reading on and off for the last week or so. Thanks to the shock of losing Inuyasha she'd forgotten what page she was on… she'd also forgotten the names of the characters as well as most of the plot… Kagome decided to start at the beginning again to get her bearings.

The fire crackled comfortably in the background, drowning out the noise of the Television on low volume. Kagome skipped ahead a couple of chapters as she began to recall how much she had read. She picked up where she had left off and relaxed in the warm, cosy living room.

A loud crash outside had her freezing on the floor. Her entire body stiffened and she lost track of everything around her as she strained to identify what the noise had been. It was very quiet now…

Perhaps it had been a fox? Or maybe it was those boys from the speeding car who had discovered where she'd lived after all.

Kagome put the book down and pushed herself to her feet as she tiptoed quietly to the window. She pushed the curtain back and peeked out discreetly, but it was too dark out there to see much. This wasn't the city and there were no street lights flooding the area with light that made night as visible as day. And with the new moon overhead, no natural light touched the world out there…

"Probably just a fox…" she whispered, repeating her earlier thoughts to herself, trying to convince herself. She let the curtain fall back into place but didn't go back to her book, instead she leant against the wall, listening for anymore sounds.

A thrill of alarm went made her eyes widen when she did hear more sounds. Unmistakable sounds of footsteps, uneven and human – definitely too heavy to be that of a little fox. Kagome tensed against the wall, listening as the footsteps came closer, crunching over the gravel of the driveway… stopping… then coming closer again.

Kagome started when the door banged loudly. Someone was pounding it with their fist, hitting it so hard that she bit her lip and wondered if it would splinter. Why hadn't they used the doorbell?

Reluctantly, and fearfully, Kagome went out into the dark hallway and made her way towards the pounding front door. She stopped when the noise paused for a minute, but it wasn't long before whoever was there started thumping it again. "Open up! I know you're home!"

A man's voice… she didn't recognise it.

He gave the door two more thumps. "I've seen your lights on – I can see smoke from your chimney, just please open the door?"

Unless there were rabid wolves after him, Kagome wasn't going to lift a finger for him. "Go away!" she called to whoever it was, keeping well away from the door.

He stopped banging. "Excuse me?"

"I said GO AWAY!" Kagome yelled, chewing her lip. Didn't he find himself coming across as scary to go banging on people's doors in the middle of nowhere at this hour.

He sounded tired and weary when he spoke again. "I'm not a weirdo – I'm a friend of your mother's… or something like that."

Like Kagome had never heard that one. "I'm not opening that door!" she called back fiercely. 

"But I'm freezing my ass off out here!"

"Tough!"

"Let me in!"

"You don't go demanding people to let you into their homes you weirdo!" she shouted. "Who are you anyway?"

"I told you!" was the impatient response. "I'm a friend of someone who used to live here."

Kagome narrowed her eyes. Did he mean Kikyo perhaps? "Tell me your name first!"

"Uh…" he seemed to think a while before answering. "Inuyasha, I think."

Kagome hesitated only a moment before bolting straight to the door and scrambling to pull back the catch. She threw the door open in the next instant and expected to find the love of her life standing there in all his majestic white haired glory.

What she found was a dark haired teenager, wet, cold and shivering. With no hall light she couldn't see his face. It wasn't Inuyasha.

__

Fool! Kagome scolded herself viscously as she braced to slam the door shut again. _How could you fall for such a-_

The boy's hand flew out before she could completely close the door, stopping it in its tracks. Kagome tried shoving her weight against it, but the boy only pushed back, and despite his sorry state he managed to overpower her, pushing her and the door back and wide open.

Time for a weapon. Kagome turned and grabbed the first thing that came to hand – a long pointy umbrella that had been leant against the wall next to the coat stand. She swung it as she turned back to the boy, wielding it like a sword.

He grabbed it in one hand before it could strike him and with the other hand he groped along the wall for the light switch. It disturbed Kagome how he seemed to know where it was.

In a second the hall was flooded with light and Kagome landed her first full look of her intruder. Black hair and black eyes… but in a face that was very much that of Inuyasha.

She released the umbrella like it was coated in acid and withdrew a step from him, not understanding at all.

He looked equally surprised to see her as well. His eyes widened in shock and his already pale, drained face took on a whiter shade. His mouth dropped open a fraction and he sounded a greeting that seemed to be somewhere between a 'hey' and a 'hi'.

The umbrella clattered to the floor loudly and the two just gazed at each other in silent shock. 

"Oh…" Kagome took a tentative step forward towards him, but when he opened his arms to her she ran into them without a thought and pressed herself tightly to him.

Inhaling deeply she breathed in the scent of a damp forest in the morning dew, wild flowers and distilled air with that touch of comforting masculinity that calmed her rattled nerves. This was Inuyasha… there was no question now, no one could imitate such a unique scent, not even Naraku on his clever days.

He sighed, stroking her hair and breathing in her own scent. Kagome wondered what she smelt like to him… probably of burning wood smoke from the living room fire. He surprised her when he spoke. "I thought you were dead."

"What?" she didn't dare draw back to see his face, she was too holding him so tightly.

"I lost track of time… I thought I'd outlived you."

Kagome couldn't help the relieved smile the curled against his shoulder. "Silly… you've only been gone a day." She pulled back then, a few questions of her own unable to be held back. "Where were you then? I thought you had been imprisoned… and what's all this about?" she gently ran her fingers through the midnight black tresses framing his face.

"I'm a Hanyou." He said quietly.

"No – you're human."

"No… I'm a Hanyou. I'm not a Hanyou Wishbringer… just a Hanyou." He twisted to look back out of the open front door. Kagome followed his gaze, wondering what he was looking at. "With a new moon… this is the first time in five hundred years."

Kagome was lost, but she remained quiet until he turned back to her with a wrinkled nose. "Now I remember why I hated new moons so much."

Still lost, Kagome blinked in confusion. "What does this mean then?"

"I'm free." He smiled.

And without a change in expression his eyes slid close and he slipped bonelessly to the ground. Kagome quickly crouched down next to him and braced a hand against his shoulder to get him to roll onto his back. He was alive… thank god… but deeply unconscious. His breathing was shallow and his heart was slow.

The headlights of a taxi peeled off the road and moved into the drive. Kagome lifted her head to peer out the door as she heard the rev of the engine and the strong light passed over her. Was it her family back from their trip to Grandma's already?

Three people got out the taxi, and as they moved into the light from the car lamps Kagome recognised them at once.

"What are you doing back here?" she called as Sango Miroku, and a very pleased looking Shippo approached the house. Shippo scrambled straight up the steps and entered the house to point at Inuyasha as he looked back at Sango and Miroku. "Look – I knew it would work!"

"We know," They both chorused in response, both looked equally tired but pleased.

"What's going on?" Kagome demanded as the three gathered around Inuyasha and herself. "I thought you were going to the airport."

"Well we came back didn't we?" Shippo pointed out.

"Plus he forgot that those tickets that the mugger stole were _return _tickets." Miroku cast Shippo an incredulous look. "I can't believe you're all powerful know it all and you forget something as important as that."

"Hey, with the amount of baggage this brain is carrying I can't help but forget some of it, you know." Shippo shot back.

Sango had knelt down next to Kagome and passed a hand over his mouth. She looked up at Kagome. "He's out cold," she spied the umbrella, "You didn't hit him with that thing did you?"

"I tried to… I didn't recognise him." Kagome ran a hand fondly through the obsidian locks, a little nostalgic for his white hair. "Will someone please tell me what is going on?"

"Ask and you shall receive." Miroku smiled broadly, but his smile slipped slightly when the taxi driver hollered loudly to them.

"Hey! I ain't got all night you know! Is someone gonna pay me or what?"

"Just wait!" Miroku called back slightly sharply, before heading out the door to go talk to the man.

"Ask and you shall receive?" Kagome echoed his statement. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means he asked me for Inuyasha's freedom and I gave it." Shippo filled in, looking genuinely chuffed.

Kagome turned a frown on the boy. "But you told me that there was no way to free him-"

"There was no way!" Shippo quickly defended himself. "You asked to tell you how to set him free, that wasn't what I wanted you to ask. I wanted you to ask me to set him free. Like say 'Will you set Inuyasha free for me, pretty please, Shippo?' and I would probably have said 'yes, ok, I'll do that'. But you didn't so I couldn't tell you!"

Kagome's frown turned into a glower. "What?" she said in a dangerously low voice. "You couldn't have just _told _me to ask that?!"

Shippo edged towards Sango. "He's bound by rules too," Sango offered the younger, previously distraught girl. "He's like a Wishbringer, only you have to say 'I ask' instead of 'I wish', plus he has the choice of denying your request, unlike Wishbringers."

"Stop comparing me to those little lapdogs." Shippo sighed moodily.

Outside the taxi turned its engine off, obviously going to sit and wait as Miroku arrived back into the house, shutting the door after him. He touched Sango's shoulder lightly. "Come on, let's get this bad boy to bed."

Kagome stepped back as he picked up Inuyasha by the shoulders and Sango got him around the ankles.

"Wow, this guy really needs to wear shoes." Sango commented as Miroku led them upstairs. "These feet are _black_!"

Kagome stayed behind to turn to Shippo, her expression softening a little. "I suppose I should thank you… despite giving us all the run-around."

"Well I wouldn't have run you guys around if you'd been a little faster taking the initiative." Shippo complained. "All you'd had to have done was make a request and I would have given whatever you wanted."

"You could have said no." she cocked her head.

"I could have… but I only say no when you want something stupid. Asking for someone's freedom isn't stupid, that's fairly unselfish and all, so I would have said yes no matter how much that guy pisses me off." Shippo grinned at her. "It was more for you than him."

Kagome felt a smile tug at her own lips. "Thanks then."

"Don't mention it."

Kagome turned to head up the stairs, but Shippo stopped her. "Wait, just to let you know that even though he's only been trapped for a day, he's gonna be a little disorientated."

"I can imagine." Kagome wondered what it must have been like.

Shippo seemed to read her mind. "It's like being in total sensory isolation. I know people can go insane from less than that."

Now there was a scary thought. Kagome was certain of Inuyasha though. "He'll be ok, I'm sure of it."

Shippo blew out his cheeks and shrugged. "He's you charge now." He said in the 'It's your funeral' tone of voice.

Sango appeared at the top of the stairs. "Kagome," she called down to them. "He's waking up."

Kagome and Shippo hurried up the stairs and followed Sango into Kagome's bedroom. Miroku sat on the end of the bed beside Inuyasha's feet. Inuyasha still looked drained and weak, but Kagome felt her heart warm when he brightened visibly to see her. What he'd said in the note came back and she found herself beaming at him. That wasn't just friendly affection he was looking at her with… now she knew the truth.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as she sat down next to him, taking hold of his hand compulsively, trying to let some of her warmth seep into his chilled fingers.

"Like my body has been torn apart molecule by molecule and then rearranged in the wrong order." He pulled a face. "Quite normal then, thank you." He glanced at Shippo and he stared a moment as if debating. Kagome wondered what he was thinking. "Shippo, can I ask you something?"

"Is that your official question?" Shippo said evasively.

"Just c'mere." Inuyasha beckoned him over and Kagome shuffled away to allow room for Shippo to lean his ear over to Inuyasha's mouth. The former Wishbringer whispered something in to him as Shippo listened attentively before sitting back.

"Sure," Shippo gave an easy shrug. "I'll allow that."

"Good, now get out of my face, pip-squeak." 

"Why do I even bother with you people…" Shippo grumbled as he moved back and let Kagome shuffled up again. She was just opening her mouth to say something when the taxi honked its horn loudly outside.

"So impatient," Sango sighed in exasperation.

Miroku unfolded his arms in his 'conversation ending' manner. "I think we should be going."

Kagome glanced at them, startled. "But you only just got back."

"We only came to check he'd got back safe and sound. Shippo worried us by saying he might turn up in Africa." Sango told her.

"…Can't do anything right can I…?" Shippo continued to grumble sarcastically under his breath.

Sango moved over and hugged Kagome tightly around the shoulders with a warm smile. "I hope you two look after each other. Congratulations," she added to Inuyasha with a smile.

He shrugged weakly.

Miroku attempted to embrace Kagome as well but only ended up getting a slap from his own hand so he gave up. "Good luck," he offered instead to glaring Inuyasha.

Kagome took them downstairs and saw them out of the door to the awaiting taxi. "See you guys!"

"You won't see me again!" Shippo called back.

"Then I'll miss you dearly!" Kagome responded.

Shippo confided in Miroku. "She doesn't mean that."

Kagome waved them off again like she'd done earlier that day, smiling widely as they bid farewell, only this time she really did feel like smiling. She had a lot to thank them for…

The taxi disappeared off into the darkness, the lights fading into the distance until they were mere tiny dots of yellow among the trees. Kagome didn't hesitate to rush back inside and back up to her bedroom where Inuyasha still lay, dozing lightly on her bed. He woke again when she came in giving Kagome the impression that he was forcing himself to remain awake for her.

"I read your note." She told him.

"What note?" he was beginning to sound hoarse with exhaustion.

"The goodbye note." He stared blankly at her and Kagome waited expectantly for him to remember.

"Oh… I seem to recall," he shook his head slightly before closing his eyes. "It'll come to me…" he trailed off.

__

What a romantic guy… Kagome sighed with mingled annoyance and affection as she looked over his relaxed face and smiled. Without giving him warning to object she leant down and brushed her lips across his forehead in a gentle kiss. He stirred slightly, but didn't rouse. Kagome realised he'd fallen asleep, not that she minded, not now that they had a whole life time together instead of just borrowed hours…

Curling up next to him on the bed she laid her head on his chest and let herself smile contentedly. "I love him too much sometimes…" she warned herself aloud before letting all the exhaustion that had been building up on her during her long day of emotional distress. It wasn't long before she fell asleep as well, dreaming pleasant dreams about her future that suddenly didn't seem so bleak.

~*~

"Isn't it nice to see people end up happy?" Sango said cheerfully as they taxi sped down the dark Izu roads.

"Gives you a sense of satisfaction and good-will." Miroku agreed.

"Just what I was about to say." Shippo nodded.

The three of them basked silently in their sense of accomplishment.

"Plus it was me who came up with the idea." Sango told them.

Miroku glanced at her dubiously. "It was me who knew what to ask – _and _I was the one who asked."

"Hey!" Shippo broke in. "It was me who set him free!"

The three of them smouldered silently in their sense of unfairness, until Miroku turned to Sango. "So it looks like you're the only one with a question left to ask now."

Sango blinked. "Yes, I suppose that's right?"

Shippo quickly pounced on his duty. "Wanna know if there are aliens in outer space?"

"Not really…"

Shippo sighed. "Why does no one ask that one… I'm dying to tell someone the truth…"

"So what do you want to ask?" Miroku asked her as the taxi bounced along the potholes.

Sango chewed her lip as she turned her gaze out of the window and into the darkness beyond. She was taking her time answering and Shippo traded looks with Miroku. Eventually she looked back at Shippo. "Do you think it would be wise to ask if Miroku would stop being such a pervert all the time?"

Miroku made a disbelieving sound in his throat.

"Very wise." Shippo nodded.

"Well…" Sango glanced at her Wishbringer. "Do _you _want to be free like Inuyasha?"

He just smiled at her.

Sango mirrored that smile on Shippo. "I think you know my question."

AN: Still another chapter/epilogue to go so don't despair too much ^_^ I know this chapter was pretty much Kagome's perspective, so the last will be from Inuyasha's.


	28. Happily Ever After?

**Author's Notes: **Wow, sorry about the long delay, but here you go! Two stories finished in 24 hours. I'm on a roll! ^__^

So thank you to all the lovely readers, and not many thank yous to the people who got impatient and rude, funnily enough, rude remarks didn't motivate me to write any faster. But with DF finally out of the way the writer's block didn't seem so much of a challenge anymore…

Unfortunately there won't be any sequel to Bottled Genius, I don't plan on dragging this out anymore.

So, all that being said and done, let's end on the cheesiest epilogue of all time! ^__^;;

Oh, and by the way, if my name changes soon, don't be too alarmed. I plan on dropping "Rosefire" for reasons more thoroughly explained in my bio.

**Bottled Genius**

**Epilogue**

**Happily Ever After?**

Life sucked. And that was the end of the matter.

Inuyasha tentatively touched a hand to the wound in his side. When he drew it away, he pulled a face at the sticky, clotting blood that dappled his fingers. He drew in a wheezing breath, trying to see how much his left lung had mended…

Not by very much at all, he discovered, when he immediately broke down in a coughing fit and tasted the metallic sting of blood on his tongue. 

"Urgh…" he groaned painfully and slid down the trunk of the tree to sit nestled in its roots. He kept the one hand pressed to his injury while keeping his ears keen on the sound of the village a few hundred metres ahead. He really needed some water to clean the wound on his side, to try and wash away as much of the eroding poison as possible… or at least wash out the taste of the blood in his mouth.

"Stupid Sesshomaru…" He absently wiped a hand across his chin, smearing the blood that dripped down from the corner of his mouth.

Another stupid run-in with his brother and he'd nearly came out of it a corpse. It was getting worse; every time they came across each other, by chance or otherwise, Inuyasha had less and less to live for… what was the point in winning another fight if he had no one to gloat to, nothing to protect, and nothing to wait for? Every day was the same as the last, going no where, while _he _went everywhere.

He had tried to find a reason and a purpose, but he was still empty-handed. His parents had died a long time ago. His mother's face was blurred with bad memory and he didn't even recall what his father was like at all. No one remembered their son. No one cared about him. Actually… the only person who cared was Sesshomaru, and the only thing his brother cared about was seeing him in an early grave.

"I'm not making much impact around here," Maybe he should burn a few villages down and take down some major demons just for kicks…

Problem was he'd probably lose heart half-way through the fight and lose. Now _there _was something he could look forward to.

He struggled to his feet and forged onwards, making his way through the crowded trees and closer to the sounds of civilisation. He wobbled onwards precariously, grunting and groaning with the effort it took to keep moving.

The village came into view and Inuyasha dropped down out of sight behind one of the huts on the outer edges of the settlement. He peered around the corner and narrowed his eyes, trying to locate some source of water…

The only one he could find was the little well smack-bang in the centre of the village. The place was swarming with locals, and there was no way he could get to it in his current condition without being seen. The moment they saw him they wouldn't hesitate to drive him out… he looked too much like a demon to sit well with humans. He'd have to wait till night-fall at least to get to it, and by then the poison would have eaten away at his side and done too much damage.

With a soft, annoyed growl he screwed his eyes shut and leant back against the wall. Nothing could go his way for a single minute, could it? Now he would die slowly and painfully… even more embarrassing and pointless than to be eaten alive by some lake monster.

He swore quietly under his breath. The thought of dying a pointless death was more irritating than anything else. Angrily, he lashed out at the nearest thing - one of the pots that had been lined up alongside the wall of the hut he leaned on. It shattered on impact and at the same moment emitted an explosion of blue dust… but it seemed to evaporate into the air like a vapour, unlike any dust he'd ever seen.

The pot-maker in the house behind him must have used _very _odd clay to make those things…

With his breathing laboured from the anger and the effort it had taken to shatter the pot, he closed his eyes again and tucked his chin into his chest, willing himself to ignore the pain…

But unconsciously he was curling up to prepare to die.

"Demons have no respect for other people's property."

Inuyasha cracked open one eye slightly and gazed at the sandals on the feet of someone dressed in priest robes. Great… a human priest… an even worse way to go than to die slowly of poisoning - to be purified by some hot-shot low-ranking human Houshi. Way to be kicked when he was down!

"If you're going to kill me, Monkey, make it quick." Inuyasha ground out, closing his eye again. "I'm on a tight schedule."

"Tempting, believe me," The priest shifted slightly, as if stretching out a few cramped limbs. But he had yet to make a move to slap some purification spell on him. "Well, after that rude awakening… what would you say if I were to tell you that you could have anything you wished for, right now."

"I'm not in the mood to be tortured by your stupid, human mind games." Inuyasha retorted hotly. "Perhaps a day when I'm _not _dying."

"Humour me." The priest ignored his pained grimaces. "What would you wish for, if you could wish for anything in the world, hanyou?"

He'd wish for a purpose in his life. He'd wish he was completely demon so that he'd be free to rampage as he wished. He'd wish that he was human so he could fit in with them and live the quiet life…

No… above all things, he'd wish for perfect strength… strength to smack the pretty face off his brother. Inuyasha smirked painfully. "Well then, I would wish to be the strongest  Hanyou in the land. Yeah… I wish I had ultimate strength and the power to do practically anything I want."

"Really?" The monk sounded amused.

"Humoured?" Inuyasha wrapped his arms more tightly around himself. "Now get lost and leave me in peace."

"Not without a little parting gift." His tone of voice made Inuyasha look up at him slowly. "You want ultimate power? Then that is what I will beseech you with. You shall have ultimate power… and the shackles that come with it."

_"NO!"_

Inuyasha tore himself awake with a choked gasp. For a moment, he felt paralysed; thorn-like pricks of pain riddled his chest, and he didn't know where he was… until the imagery details began seeping into his awareness. He realised he was right where he'd fallen asleep.

On top of the oil tank. With a cat on his chest.

He relaxed quickly. He didn't often have nightmares like that nowadays, but they were still enough to get him tensed up and moody. Strangely, his conscience seemed intent in not letting him forget his screwed up past. He'd fixed said past, but that didn't stop it from haunting him…

So what he'd had nothing to live for? So what he'd been a slave? Well, now he was free, and he didn't plan to end up alone so easily again. He had Kagome after all. It was doubtful that she'd let him out of her sight for more than five minutes anyway…

"Get off, Buyo." he grumbled. The enormous cat had practically been clinging to his ankles the moment it had waddled in the front door. Apparently, the Higurashi family had left the animal back with a friend's family in the city as cats were renowned for wandering home to their original stomping grounds; and rather than risk taking the cat and have it roll its fat tummy across thirty miles of motorway traffic, leaving it behind had been the safest option. But of course, Buyo was no ordinary cat. Besides being obese, he had also waddled across thirty miles of traffic _willingly _to rejoin his old family in a new stomping ground. Just how it had known where to go had baffled everyone…

The moment he'd seen Inuyasha, it had been love at first sight. So now Inuyasha was enjoying the worse half of a love-hate relationship.

Inuyasha sighed and pushed the bloated animal off his chest (lest have the air crushed out of him) and right off the oil tank's edge….

Another strange thing about Buyo was that he never quite managed to land on all four paws. More like he faithfully landed on his back with a thud each time he fell from a height… which, disturbingly, happened a lot.

"Inuyasha!"

"I didn't do it - he jumped!" Inuyasha barked automatically, sitting up to face his accuser.

"What?" Kagome stepped over the flattened feline with a peculiar look. She obviously hadn't seen the crime…

"Oh, nothing…" he contrived innocence as he hopped down from the top of the tank to ground-level. "Did you want something?"

"Well, dinner's nearly ready… oh, hello Buyo!" Kagome bent down to scoop to concussed cat into her arms, letting it dangle as she hooked her arms under his front legs… he was simply too large to hold the normal way. She proceeded to baby-talk him. "Who's my fatty, fat cat, eh? Yes, that's right! You are!"

Inuyasha eyed the animal warily. Buyo made sounds that no mortal cat should make… "So… weren't we supposed to be having dinner with your ex-dad?"

"Uh huh." Kagome nodded. "The loser chickened out. Looks like we're going to have to drag him to court if we want any money out of him."

"If you want, I could just hold him upside down and shake him…?" Inuyasha offered, folding his arms.

Kagome actually considered for a long moment before shaking her head. "Nah, we can squeeze more out of his wallet if we sick a judge on him."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Oh - but when you meet him, your gang name is Inuyasha, you belong to a heavy metal band, carry loaded guns around in your pockets, and have lured me into crack cocaine abuse." Kagome told him with a perky smile. She swung the cat in her arms. "Oh - and every Friday night, you take me along to a threesome with… uh… your twin brother!"

Inuyasha blinked at her. "Not another one of your weird fantasies, is it?"

"Trust me, the judge will take more money off him if the abandoned family is a wreck." Kagome explained. "If they think that I fell in love with a no-good loser when dad left, they'll be more sympathetic and automatically hate him as much as we do!"

"I see." Inuyasha cocked his head. "Who says you didn't fall in love with a no-good loser anyway?"

"Oh, Inuyasha…" Kagome nudged him - with difficulty considering she was holding a cat roughly the same size as toddler, who also happened to be craning to paw Inuyasha. "You earn your keep… despite not being able to grant wishes for me anymore."

"And how do I do that?"

Buyo's ear flicked as Kagome's gaze trailed away, thinking hard. Inuyasha's ear twitched, unconsciously mirroring the cat in his annoyance. Eventually, Kagome came back. "You chop wood faster than I've ever seen!"

Inuyasha gave a cocky grin. Anyone could chop wood… but no one could entertain Kagome as much as he could… especially when the shirt came off. Obviously, her thoughts were running along the same tracks as his as her cheerful expression smoothed into something a little more coy. "You're not that fast at everything… are you?"

She was lucky her mother had no idea of the things she said when Mrs H was out of ear-shot.

Inuyasha stepped forward, deliberately invading personal space as he reached out to grab her upper arms, squeezing gently. Poor Buyo was pretty much squashed, judging by the muffled mewl he made. "Kagome… let's ditch the cat and go somewhere a little more private for a little… fun, yeah?"

Once more, Buyo proved to be nothing more than consistent in his ability to land with a thump on his back.

**~*~**

"Come on… come on… just get it in… come on… ohhhh! Yes!!" Inuyasha collapsed on the bed. "Do it again!"

Kagome sighed, swamped with boredom. She perched her elbow on her knee and her chin in her palm. "You know, when you said 'fun' I thought you meant something a little more… _fun_."

"What, aren't you having fun?" Inuyasha sat up quickly. "Look, I'll get it and you can try again."

He bounced off the bed and ran across the room. He dove into the waste-paper basket and pulled out a scrunched up ball paper, then quickly ran back and deposited it in Kagome's lap. "There you go."

With a cocked eyebrow, Kagome picked up the abused ball of paper and threw it… for what felt like the hundredth time. But for the ninety-ninth time, it just bounced off the rim of the wastepaper basket and tumbled on the floor.

Inuyasha fetched. Kagome threw. He fetched. She threw. He fetched. She threw…

She giggled as the paper ball was dropped in her lap again. It was actually a piece of chemistry that she'd been working on, but having messed up the chemical formula for calculating the atomic mass of Silver Nitrate, it was fair 'fetch' material. "You're such a puppy, Inuyasha." she told him with a  grin.

"What?!" He gave her a dirty look.

"Come here." She patted the bed beside her. Inuyasha obediently sat down next to her. With a smile, Kagome got up on her knees and shuffled behind him. Pushing his hair to the side, she rested her chin on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his chest, absently scratching his tummy the way he liked. Inuyasha made a soft sound and let his own head fall back against her shoulder. Her smile widened, happy in the knowledge that she was allowed free reign to hold him whenever she wanted. No more walking on eggshells.

No more obstacles.

"You remember when they said that forty percent of people ended up miserable…?" she asked offhandedly.

"Mm…?" That sound taped off into a low rumble that sounded suspiciously like a happy puppy.

"How do you think we ended up?"

"People don't fall into categories, Kagome." he replied in that usual dismissive manner of his. "Everything goes on… we may yet end up miserable."

"So you think we're in the top seven percent so far?" Kagome cocked her head.

Inuyasha cracked open an eye. "I doubt it."

Kagome stopped her ministrations on his belly. "Huh?"

"Well… we're not all _that _happy, are we?" He turned slightly in her arms. "I mean, you're still living in this godforsaken place while your beloved Shrine falls into disrepair. Your father is still evading his monthly children-support bills."

"I'm still expelled from school."

"With no friends."

"No malls."

"No decent plumbing…"

"And you just wasted all the wishes that could have gotten you out of such a hairy situation." Inuyasha snorted. "You ain't getting them back now…"

Kagome's nose wrinkled. "Wow, my life still sucks!"

"Not just yours!" Inuyasha informed her. "You heard Sango complaining, didn't you? The moment Miroku got Wishbringer-ism lifted off him, he's been endlessly groping her. I think he was making up for lost time after being forced to slap himself for so long… and then there's Shippo. The last time Sango and Miroku saw him, he was plastered against the airplane window because the guy sitting next to him only happened to be the widest man in the country. Not exactly a happy ending for him either! Not that I really care about that squirt or anything…"

"Yeah…" Kagome sighed. "And then there's Onigumo. I doubt he's very happy trapped up inside Mount Hakurei with only his thoughts to accompany him…"

Inuyasha went oddly still. It aroused Kagome's suspicion. "What's the matter?"

"He's not thinking anymore. He's dead." Inuyasha told her simply.

"Oh…" Kagome frowned. "I thought you said he was immortal…?"

"I asked a little favour of Shippo…" He shrugged. "I dunno… after experiencing all the joys of sensory depravation for myself, I kinda felt a little sorry for the guy."

"So you committed euthanasia." Kagome paraphrased.

"I spared him an eternity of misery, that's all…" He glanced at her. "Plus I didn't want any chance of him coming back as Naraku again either."

"Well… fair enough." Kagome looked down. "But you know… this doesn't exactly sound like the happy ending I was hoping for."

Inuyasha pulled himself out of her limp arms and turned to her fully. "Who says it's the end? Your Grandpa's already considering selling this place to move back to your Shrine anyway, so I don't know what the big deal is."

"What?!" Kagome gaped at him.

He blinked back. "Maybe that was your birthday surprise…?" he winced. "Ok – forget what I just said. Your Grandpa isn't planning to sell this goldmine and move back into the city."

A grin spread across Kagome's face, unrestrained and gleeful. "That's brilliant! Does this mean I get to go home?!" She hooked her arms around his neck as he nodded with a vague 'oh well, blew that one out the water, didn't I?' expression. "You're not upset are you…? I mean… you like the quiet here, don't you? What if you don't want to move into the city?"

He rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Wherever you go, I'll go, I don't care. You could move to the summit of Mount Everest and I'd still go with you… to supply you with blankets, if nothing else."

Kagome smiled and leant forward to place a soft kiss on his lips. "Thank you."

Inuyasha frowned slightly as they drew apart. "For what?"

"For 'Happily ever after'." She sighed a contented sigh as she glanced towards the stack of homework given to her by Hojo. "Or close enough."

"You know, you still had one wish left that you didn't use." Inuyasha told her. "If you still had it, what would you wish for?"

"Um… Kagome tapped her chin thoughtfully, then grinned. "I'd wish that we were together… forever."

Easily granted. Inuyasha smirked and planted a kiss on her lips. One of many that were to come. "As you wish."

**-finis**

AN: About damn time!****


End file.
